Warbirds of Mars: Stories of the Fight!

by Неизвестный

  Josie stood and brought the MP35 to bear on the Martian Lords, who were still struggling to stand and cope with the surprise that had killed their master. They held up their three-fingered hands in supplication, but to no avail. Josie squinted and pulled the trigger, spraying the extraterrestrial fiends with a hail of bullets aimed at their heads. The Martians’ eyes exploded into gooey splatters of green and black, and they fell back upon their divans, convulsing in the throes of death spasms.

  An alien scream followed the sound of Jack using his death ray to dispatch another of the females, but the thud of a slamming door alerted Josie that the third Martian matriarch had escaped the slaughter. “Jack!”

  “I know.” Jack yelled. “The guards have heard us by now anyway. Get the girls!” He laid out the saddlebags and opened their satchels, tossing Josie a rope ladder from within. He reached into the other side and pulled out the time bomb, placing it near the central support.

  Josie barred the door and turned to address the room. “Alright ladies, we’re here to spring you all out of this joint!” She ran to the balcony at the far side and opened the doors onto the patio overlooking the rear courtyard of the building, just as an alarm began sounding. “Everyone, follow me if you want to live!”

  Screaming former slaves all ran to join Josie at the building’s edge, while she fastened the ladder to a flagpole. She let the ladder drop and unfurl, looking down just as a familiar German transport truck rolled to a stop and Rhode got out, beckoning fervently.

  “Start climbing down, ladies,” Josie instructed over the wailing sirens. “We’ll cover your escape.”

  Jack joined her at the entrance to the balcony and he covered the doors through which they had initially been led into the room. “Any second now.” With that, the doors exploded inward and machine gun fire and Martian death rays poured forth. Josie and Jack opened fire in return, ducking the hail and firing continuously, trying to hold the enemy at bay.

  Josie pulled an empty magazine from her gun and grabbed the spare from Jack’s belt. “Last clip!” She looked behind her to find that half of the freed girls were still atop the balcony with them. “This isn’t looking good!”

  “Well,” Jack replied, firing again, “you’ve got me!”

  Josie laughed, cocked her weapon, and began firing again.

  Jack was simultaneously shooting and dialing in his Radio/TV-wristwatch. “I can’t raise Hunter! They must still be underground.” An enemy round struck the doorframe next to Jack’s face, splintering the wood. Jack cried out, falling back.

  “Jack!” Josie turned back to the battle at hand and unloaded the whole magazine. She dropped the MP35 and grabbed the Martian gun from Jack’s hand, firing wildly. “Jack, are you alright?”

  One hand was still pawing at his eyes, but Jack rejoined her at the door, a luger pistol in his hand. “I’ll be fine. Get behind me and get the girls moving.”

  “I’m not leaving you!” Another spatter of bullets ricocheted past them, causing Josie to lose her footing. Jack called her name but she indicated that she was all right. She looked back, watching another of the frightened girls climb over the side. She turned her head the other way in time to see a Martian and a Nazi trooper run into the throne room. Josie raised the gun and fired, the ray slicing through both of them. They were running out of time. “Here they come!”

  An explosion within the room threw both of them back. As the smoke cleared and Josie’s vision returned, she felt for Jack, finding him near and wiping the battle out of his eyes. “That wasn’t the time-bomb,” Josie exclaimed.

  “It was me.” Hunter Noir landed on his feet between the couple and opened up on the enemy with both pistols blazing. Mr. Mask leapt past him into the throne room, firing a Thompson until he reached the far end, where he threw the spent weapon aside and drew his samurai sword. The first soldier who dared enter the room was chopped down with one swipe of the deadly blade. Mask jumped over him into the darkness, his sword swinging wildly.

  “Where the hell did you come from?” Josie asked, picking herself up.

  “Roof of the adjacent building,” Hunter answered, indicating to their right with the brim of his fedora. “The resistance is coming up the drive. They’ll cover the truck’s escape. We need to get off this roof. How long before your charge blows?”

  “Minutes,” Josie answered, helping the last girl over the ledge and onto the spindly ladder.

  Jack got up as well. “What about the refinery?”

  “The charges are set and the slaves are running for their lives,” Hunter told them. He shot again, killing a random Nazi that appeared through the smoke. “In sixty seconds this whole place is going to be a bonfire pit the size of Wrigley stadium.”

  “Then let’s get the hell out of here!” Jack cried. “Where’s Mask?”

  “He’ll make his own egress. Over the side, flyboy,” Hunter commanded.

  “You don’t have to tell us twice,” Josie said. She kicked off her heels, scrambled onto the ladder, and began to climb down. The shreds of her clothing blew in the crisp wind. She looked beneath her to see the girls being helped off of the ladder by Rhode. Above, Jack and Hunter were descending toward her. She dropped the last few feet and rolled across the ground. Jack and Hunter landed as well and helped her to her feet.

  “Let’s go!” Hunter yelled at Rhode, then stepped onto the running board to hang on.

  Josie looked up at the building in time to see Mr. Mask emerge from a second story window and leap to the ground. An explosion rocked the building, and a flash of flames and debris rose from the roof, demolishing the former throne room. She finished climbing into the truck as the bricks started falling. “Go, go, go!”

  Mask met up with the truck and attached himself to the other running board as the truck sped out of the compound, following one other Resistance vehicle that had been shooting enemy soldiers on the grounds. Both trucks tore through the unmanned checkpoint just as underground explosions rumbled through the area, shaking everything in sight.

  Josie chanced a final look out the flap of the transport. All the buildings of the brewery were engulfed in flames, some of the structures even sinking into an ever-widening pit. Josie smiled, elated.

  The Resistance transferred the former slave girls onto another ride and quickly got underway, heading out of the city before a lockdown could be enforced and the surrounding areas could be swept for the commandos. The truck slipped out as dawn crested a new day over Milwaukee. They headed for their planes hidden in the fields beyond.

  Josie was wrapped in her leather jacket and an army blanket, leaning back on Jack, almost dozing. Berger had curled up next to her legs, keeping her feet warm. “Jack?”

  “Mmhmm?” His eyes were closed and he sounded half asleep.

  “Did you see the shooting star?” she asked. One had passed overhead while they were putting on their flight clothes and helping the women into the truck that would take them to freedom.

  “Yeah.”

  Hunter looked at them from his perch at the back of the truck. “What did you wish for, Ms. Taylor?”

  “You first,” she smiled.

  “Contentment,” Hunter answered. He looked at Mask.

  “Peace,” the half-bred warrior said.

  The truck turned off the road and ambled across a dirt field toward where Josie’s Corsair was hidden. Josie pulled on her flight cap.

  Hunter watched her put on her gloves and smiled slightly, a feature he rarely displayed to Josie’s knowledge. “Well, Ms. Taylor?”

  “A future,” she finally admitted. She looked up at Jack. “I’ll bet I can guess what Jack wished for,” she said with a grin.

  Jack opened his eyes and stretched, groaning.

  “Yeah. A two-seater.”

  A NOTE FROM

  THE EDITORS

  Thanks for buying this book. If you enjoyed WARBIRDS OF MARS: STORIES OF THE FIGHT!, please help spread the word. Word of mouth remains the single best technique for gaining high
er sales for e-books. There are a few simple things you can do to increase the book’s popularity, and they take very little of your time.

  On amazon.com, you can click the ‘Like’ button and write a great review. Reviews don’t need to be long to be effective: just say that you liked it and why. On barnesandnoble.com, you can post glowing reviews and they also have a ‘Like’ button. On goodreads.com, you can post ecstatic reviews, add the book to any lists you have, start a discussion about it on the message boards, or use the ‘Recommend’ button to tell others about the book. On the Web, you can blog about the book if you have a blog, shout loudly on Twitter and Facebook about how much you enjoyed the book, and if you belong to any message boards, start a conversation about the book there too.

  Finally, you can tell people you know, in person, about the book, and encourage them to buy it. If you take the time to engage in any of these guerilla word-of-mouth strategies, we thank you humbly.

  CONTRIBUTING

  AUTHORS

  SEAN ELLIS is the author of several thriller and adventure novels, including the Nick Kismet series, and the pulp-inspired Adventures of Dodge Dalton. He is a veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resources Policy from Oregon State University. Sean is also a member of the International Thriller Writers organization. He currently resides in Arizona, where he divides his time between writing, adventure sports, and trying to figure out how to save the world. Visit Sean Ellis on the web at seanellisthrillers.webs.com

  RON FORTIER has been writing comics and sci-fi novels for over thirty-five years, and is best known for his Green Hornet & Terminator work for Now Comics. Today he manages Airship 27 Productions with partner Rob Davis, publishing New Pulp fiction novels and anthologies, to include his new original Captain Hazzard novels. He can be reached at Airship27@comcast.net. His website is http://www.airship27.com.

  KANE GILMOUR is the writer of the regular Warbirds of Mars webcomic, online at the website: http://www.warbirdsofmars.com. He is the author of the thrillers Resurrect and The Crypt of Dracula. He is also the bestselling co-author for Jeremy Robinson’s series of Jack Sigler/Chess Team books. His co-authored titles include the #1 Amazon Action & Adventure and the #1 Science-Fiction & Adventure thriller, Ragnarok, the upcoming sequel Omega, and the novella Callsign: Deep Blue. Visit him at http://www.facebook.com/kane.gilmour.author & kanegilmour.com.

  STEPHEN M. IRWIN’s short stories and short films have won numerous competitions across Australia and around the world. His debut novel, supernatural thriller The Dead Path, was published around the world and was named Top Horror Novel 2011 in the American Library Association’s RUSA Reading List. Stephen’s second novel, The Broken Ones, was released in 2011/2012 to outstanding reviews, including being named ‘Pick of the Week’ by the Sydney Morning Herald and one of the 100 Best Fiction books of 2012 on Kirkus Reviews. Both novels have been optioned for adaptation into cinema features. Stephen works as a screenwriter and story developer, and is creator and lead writer of a six-part crime drama, Secrets and Lies, produced by BAFTA and Emmy® Award winners Hoodlum Interactive, for Australia’s Network Ten. Find him at http://www.stephenmirwin.com & http://www.facebook.com/Stephen.M.Irwin?fref=ts.

  J. H. IVANOV lives in a sunless grotto beneath Peoria, AZ, with his wife, their familiars, and countless unnamable creatures that also fear the harsh light of day. He received a B. A. in English and an M. A. in Interdisciplinary Studies with a focus on fiction writing from Arizona State University. He’s currently working on a YA supernatural novel, and he has an easier time imagining a life without breathing than a life without writing. Follow his work at http://www.facebook.com/jhivanov.author.

  DAVID LINDBLAD was born and raised in Mesa, Arizona, and at a young age, he needed a creative outlet. He began writing and performing as a child, and read a great deal, examining style from the masters of literature, but finding most of his interest was in science fiction and horror. His library filled with H. P. Lovecraft and his contemporaries, and his writing style began to emulate authors of that period. His previous work, a short novella by the name of Found Manuscript, can be found on Amazon.com.

  JEFFREY J. MARIOTTE is the award-winning author of more than forty-five novels, including the supernatural thrillers Season of the Wolf, River Runs Red, Missing White Girl, and Cold Black Hearts; the horror epic The Slab; the thriller The Devil’s Bait; the Dark Vengeance teen horror quartet; and many others. He also writes comic books, including the long-running horror/Western comic book series Desperadoes. He’s a co-owner of specialty bookstore Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego and Redondo Beach, CA, and lives on the Flying M Ranch in Arizona’s historic Sulphur Springs Valley. Please visit him at http://www.jeffmariotte.com and at http://www.facebook.com/JeffreyJMariotte.

  ALEX NESS has written comics, prose, and poetry for print and other considerations since 2002. His list of published works, contact information, interviews, and more can be found on his central website, at alexnesspoetry.blogspot.com/. He sees himself as a poet, mostly, but all writing can be poetry, and all poetry requires command of languages, so he is content simply calling himself a writer.

  CHRIS SAMSON has written stories that have appeared in over a dozen publications, most recently in Rock ‘n Roll Is Dead: Dark Tales Inspired by Music, Strange Mysteries 4, and Tales of Terror and Mayhem From Deep Within the Box. Follow his quest as a writer, doctoral student, and ultimate male on Twitter at @Strangeverses and visit him at Strangeverses.com.

  MEGAN E. VAUGHN is a conveyer of useless trivia and a peddler of literature. She holds a B. A. in history, an M. A. in education, and a mean high score on that Wii dancing game. In addition to her love of The Muppets and any television program featuring Lee Pace, she is keen upon studying the backgrounds of fairy tales, watching classic films, and quoting Bugs Bunny. She is currently working on a fantasy series for young adults, and she has a book being published by the upcoming indie company, Five Smiling Fish Publications. She also starred as the voice of Josie Taylor in the Warbirds of Mars radio show. She resides in Phoenix, Arizona. Contact her at http://www.facebook.com/megan.vaughn.587.

  SCOTT P. ‘DOC’ VAUGHN is a Phoenix illustrator and writer, originally hailing from Wisconsin. When he’s not hard at work on comics and commissions, he’s trying to catch up on drawing his web-comic creation, Warbirds of Mars. Some of Doc’s fantasy pen & ink art was featured in A Life of Ravens: Epic Poetry and Narrative and Lancelot: Poems About the Man and Legend by Alex Ness, and in The Crypt of Dracula by Kane Gilmour. Among Doc’s interests are classic illustrations and movie genres, vintage clothes and cars, pulp magazines, and a severe predilection for Doctor Who since the age of eight. He lives in a very classic house with a cat, a bird, and occasionally a dog. Visit him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/scottpvaughn and follow his work on http://www.vaughn-media.com.

  CONTRIBUTING

  ARTISTS

  JEAN ARROW is the comic book artist and creator of Extraordinary Tales of Lazer Woman and Strong Girl. She does work for 5FINITY Productions, and is currently working on several comic book projects. You can find more of her art on http://www.facebook.com/thejeanarrow.

  ADRIANO “ANDY” CARREON is an artist-illustrator based in Phoenix, AZ. He has worked on a few Sketch Card sets for Rittenhouse Archives, 5Finity, and Cryptozoic Entertainment. He is currently a cover artist for Zombies vs. Cheerleaders. Follow him at artstudioexhibit.com/ & http://www.facebook.com/AdrianoAndyCarreon.

  MIKE DEBALFO is a former Joe Kubert School student who claimed notoriety for his playful and cheeky pinup girls while doing covers for Zenescope Entertainment. Since then Mike has dived deeper into the comics by unleashing his own brand of “squirrel-girl” branding characters, and he is currently penciling Soulfire for Aspen Comics. Find him at http://www.mikedebalfo.com.

  BILL FARMER is a digital color artist who has worked on books published by Top Cow Productions, Darkhorse Comics, Archaia, and Boom! Studios. Follow his work at htt
p://www.billfarmercolor.com and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/BFColor.

  MATT GOODALL is the artist and co-creator of Sonic Youth for Spazdog Press. His pencils appear in Unite and Take Over: Stories Inspired by the Songs of the Smiths, Volumes 1 and 2. Matt also has several works in progress for 2013 under his own company, Long Dog Art. Matt’s work is at mattgoodall.deviantart.com/ and longdogart.blogspot.com/.

  CHRISTIAN GULDAGER is a freelance illustrator, with a penchant for drawing zombies, aliens, monsters, and everything scary and cool. With an ability to adapt to most art styles, Christian enjoys painted, drawn and photo-based artwork. He lives in a snowy suburb in Denmark. Follow his work at http://www.chrisguldager.com and friend him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Christian-Guldager/126699076404?fref=ts.

  ROBERT HACK is an illustrator who sadly wasn’t born early enough to work for the pulps. Projects he was born in time to draw include: Doctor Who Classics, Spawn, Big Bang Comics, Life With Archie, New Crusaders, Mice Templar, Vampirella, Red Sonja, Call of Cthullu, Blake’s 7, and Superman: The Legend. Follow him at roberthackstudios.com/ and at roberthack.deviantart.com/. He is also on Twitter: twitter.com/Robert_Hack.

  ROB HICKS is an independent comic book artist who has appeared in numerous small press and indie titles over the years. Recently he, along with Derrick Tipton and Mickey Chaney, have started their own publishing studio called Spiral Ink Comics (spiralinkcomics.com) with Rob’s new book Hooded Cobra leading the way! You can follow Rob on Facebook and Deviant Art at http://www.facebook.com/robhicks78 and rob-hix.deviantart.com.