Mars Colony Chronicles (Books 1 - 5): A Space Opera Box Set Adventure

by Brandon Ellis

  Ozzy rested his palms on his knees, breathing loudly. “I’m out of shape.”

  “You’re under arrest.”

  Ozzy laughed. “Yeah, right.”

  “No, I mean it. I have to take you in.”

  He stood and his mouth slackened. “Seriously? Just like that?” He eyed the area. “Put that gun away. Jonas will see it and send his thugs after you.”

  She held her gun out. “No can do. I have my assignment, and I plan to carry it out.”

  4

  Tagus Valles, Mars

  “Put the gun down, Jozi.” He bent over again, doing his best to catch his breath. He shook his head. “I’m not going with you.” Sweat dripped down his cheek.

  “I’ll force you.”

  A hand clap and several men, along with Jonas, stepped through some bushes. Jonas continued clapping. “Well, I can see why you left so quickly, Ozzy. She’s a beauty.” He extended his hand to Jozi.

  She kept her gun on Ozzy, giving Jonas a dip of her head. “Thanks for the compliment.”

  “Let’s be a gentlewoman, please,” said Jonas, gesturing toward several security guards holding rifles by their sides. “You are interrupting a major deal.”

  Jozi took a step toward Ozzy. “Another deal, Ozzy? Really?”

  Jonas sidestepped and put his arm out, trying to place his hand between Jozi’s gun and Ozzy. Jonas was being his diplomatic self, something in which he excelled. “Whoa, listen, listen. I know you’re only doing your job, and the rest of my guys and I really appreciate the work that you do.” He cupped his hands over his big belly. “You’re an MMP agent, correct?”

  Jozi nodded.

  “Okay, that’s what I thought.” Jonas pointed to his chest. “I know you think I’m just here to make money, but I’m also here to save the world.”

  Ozzy almost laughed but kept it at bay.

  Jonas continued, “Ozzy is here to retrieve a weapon of mass destruction to take down the coming Dunrakee attack that will be here in three weeks.”

  Ozzy stood erect. “What are you doing?” He had already told Jonas to keep it a secret.

  Jonas put his hands out to calm Ozzy. “It’s okay. We need more MMP agents on our side and on the up and up.” His face slackened. “It’s called the Ark of the Concordant.”

  “You’re lying,” said Jozi. “The Ministry has the Dunrakee ships two months out, not three weeks. We’re amassing a huge defense at Mars’s exosphere. The Martian Marines are on top of it.”

  “Whose information is more accurate? A crime syndicate who watches everything and keeps tabs on the ins and outs of the Ministry, along with Earth. Or the Ministry? They can’t even get the weather right. How many dust storms have we had this year, and how many has the Ministry gotten correct?” He smiled, his big white teeth glistening. “I rest my case.”

  Jozi lowered her gun half an inch. “Show me this weapon you’re talking about.”

  Ozzy crossed his arms. “Nope.”

  “Follow me, Miss,” said Jonas, turning and walking past a line of large shrubs toward his mansion.

  Ozzy’s face reddened. “We don’t have the weapon.”

  Jonas spun around. “Shut up!”

  Ozzy’s boots clanked on Relic’s ramp, and if he weren’t so pissed at Jonas for taking Jozi to his ship, he’d be jumping up and down with excitement for what was parked in Relic’s storage bay.

  A brand new, yellow-painted mole digger with a diamond-tipped drill that was bigger and wider than the entire fifteen-foot-by-ten-foot machine itself.

  Instead, he walked toward his ladder to climb to the top deck of his craft and to his cockpit where he’d wait for Jonas to stop bullshitting Jozi.

  When she left, he’d be on his way to Olympus Mons.

  Alone.

  “Your locker, Ozzy,” demanded Jonas.

  “What?”

  “That capsule I saw this morning; you know, the one you tried to shrug off as nothing? Show us that. We need proof to show this agent that we’re headed to get the Ark of the Concordant.”

  Ozzy took his hands off the cold rungs and put his arms out wide. “Why? Let me be on my way and let her be on her way. That’s all that needs to be done here.”

  “A Dunrakee armada will be here before we know it.”

  “Rat-monkey-ass son of a…” Ozzy stomped his foot like a child. He hurried over to the locker, flipped open the latch, and pulled out the capsule. “See? Neat.” He put it back and shut the locker door.

  “Guards.” Jonas stepped aside, and the guards pointed their rifles at Ozzy’s head.

  Ozzy flinched. “Fine.” He opened the locker again and took out the capsule.

  “Show us what it does,” ordered Jonas.

  Ozzy held the capsule between his hands. He pulled in opposite directions. A blue light flashed and a holographic grid with a map shot outward.

  “You see those golden wings?” Ozzy said. “That’s the Ark of the Concordant. You know, a weapon of mass destruction, something that can levitate people and giant thousand-ton blocks and could also be used as a power plant of sorts, enough to power this entire city.”

  “It’s under Olympus Mons?” Jozi said.

  “Yep,” Ozzy replied.

  Jozi looked at Jonas. “And—”

  Krackakow!

  Relic shuddered, and Ozzy unconsciously ducked. Photon blasts zipped inside the craft. A guard grabbed his throat, blood gushing out, and buckled over. He went lifeless before he hit the ramp and rolled off, thumping hard to the ground.

  “What the hell?” yelled Jonas. He eyed Ozzy. “Get this ship off the ground. I’ll hold off whoever that is until you get out of the city.”

  Ozzy threw Jonas his sidearm. He caught it and turned to head down the ramp.

  Ozzy glanced at Jozi. “What are you doing?” He pointed out of the ramp. People in black—the telltale sign of Mort Wildly’s crime syndicate—were racing up a small hill and toward Relic, firing their photon rifles. “Help them.”

  “No, stay Jozi. Help Ozzy. And let more of your agents know what’s going on with the Dunrakee invasion. Those bubble-headed aliens are arriving sooner than you guys thought.” Jonas rushed out of the ship, shooting this and that way and downing a few of Wildly’s soldiers before running toward his house.

  More of Jonas’s guards rushed into view.

  An explosion outside rocked Relic again. Several of Jonas’s men went flying. Ozzy looked away, not wanting to see body parts splattering all over the yard.

  “Slap the ramp’s “close” button,” Ozzy hollered, rushing to his cockpit.

  Jozi did, but nothing happened.

  Ozzy rushed up the ramp and stopped halfway, glancing over his shoulder. “Slap it harder.”

  She kicked it.

  Again, nothing.

  Wildly’s troops were getting closer.

  She grabbed onto a pendant hanging from her necklace. A family—a mother, a father, and a daughter—was carved into it. “Can you override it from your cockpit?”

  Ozzy jumped down from the ladder and ran to his weapon’s rack.

  “What are you doing?” she yelled.

  A blast knocked her on her side and threw Ozzy into the rack. Rifles and other weapons dropped like heavy rain, smacking him upside the head and shoulders.

  Loud bootsteps echoed inside the storage bay. Ozzy glanced at the ramp. One of Wildly’s men was dashing inside Relic, guns in both of his hands, readying to send Ozzy to his grave.

  5

  Tagus Valles, Mars

  Ozzy grabbed for whatever weapon was closest to him and raised the gun, pointing it at Wildly’s soldier.

  He pressed the trigger.

  Click. Click.

  He flipped the gun upside down. The photon magazine slot in the grip was empty, meaning no photon energy pack.

  Shit.

  The man glanced at Ozzy, smiling when their eyes met. He had dirty, broken teeth and a crooked nose and had been in his fair share of fights, to say the least
. He lifted his rifle. “Bye, bye, butterfly. I’m going to put you in a cocoon.”

  The guy jerked forward, dropped the photon pistols, and fell to the floor. Jozi released her foot from his crotch and stood, bringing her elbow down hard and cracking him across his neck, knocking him unconscious. She pushed him off the ramp and outside.

  She spun, pointing to the ladder. “Go and get us out of here.”

  Screw the ramp. It wasn’t closing, so he’d fly with it down. He pushed the weapons off of himself and rushed to the ladder, moving two rungs at a time, and dashed into his cockpit.

  He panted as he sat in his chair. “Crap.” He pushed the ionic fuel cell lever forward, feeding the engines, and switched them on.

  Relic purred like a kitten.

  He lifted his ship into the air while simultaneously speaking into his mic. “Get the capsule, Jozi, and bring it up here.” He had no idea if Jozi got the message, or if she were fighting some other bastard who had found his way into the ship, but he crossed his fingers—the best he could do at the moment.

  His craft vibrated as he rotated his ionic boosters horizontally. “Hurry, hurry,” he chided Relic, punching the cockpit roof. Relic revved up and blasted forward, pinning him into his seat.

  He hoped Jonas had locked the mole digger in place as he had asked. If not, it was most likely rolling backward and falling out of his ship right now.

  The light g-force from the thrust eased up, and metal against metal pinged in the cockpit. He unstrapped and jumped out of his seat, his fists up, ready to defend himself and the ship.

  He lowered his hands when he saw Jozi on her backside, blowing her hair out of her face. The metal capsule rolled on the grated floor, stopping at his foot.

  “Sorry,” she said. “I had nothing to hold on to.”

  Ozzy picked up the capsule and hurried to the railing that overlooked the lower deck of the storage bay. The mole digger was locked in place. “How did you close the ramp?”

  “It closed the moment you turned the ship on.” She stood, rubbing her bum. “Note next time—turn on the ship when you want to shut the ramp.”

  He shot her a look, wanting to flip her off, but from his past experiences with her, she had a knee-like reaction toward groins. “Can you use weapons arrays on S-4 Jumper Class IV’s?”

  “I am trained for most ships, but yours isn’t military grade, so why would it matter?”

  It wasn’t military grade when he bought it years ago, but that didn’t stop him from making it so. “Get in the weapons room. We’re turning around, heading back to Jonas’s compound.”

  “How did you get past the authorities to make this—” She waved a dismissive hand and nodded, probably understanding that Ozzy wasn’t one for following rules, especially rules created by the Ministry.

  She didn’t wait for his reply and raced down the hall toward the room.

  Ozzy picked up the capsule and hopped onto his cockpit seat. He turned the ship around. Smoke from Jonas’s mansion clouded his view. The last time Ozzy had met with him in person, poor Jonas had lost his office building. Now his house was next in line.

  Ozzy upped the throttle, wondering why the hell the Mars Ministry Police weren’t on the scene by now. A small-scale battle was taking place below, and the entire Ministry should have been notified.

  But he knew why.

  He bit his lip and squeezed his hand into a tight fist, anger rushing through him. High Judge Robert Baldwin was somehow in cahoots with Mort Wildly. Otherwise, a parade of S-9 MMP ships would be on top of Jonas’s compound at this very moment. Hell, the Tagus Valles MMP station wasn’t more than a few blocks away.

  “I’m all set, Ozzy. Ready to blast some Wildly black-shirts to dust,” said Jozi through the intercom.

  “Excellent.” Ozzy brought Relic around and faced the onslaught. “Do you see the battle on your holoarray screen?”

  “Yes. I have my eyes on it.”

  Ozzy flew Relic closer. It looked like a standoff around the mansion. Jonas’s guards were positioned around the perimeter of the house and on the roof, shooting at Wildly’s men who were hiding behind trees, shrubbery, and random cars parked on the street.

  The massive yard was chock-full of pockmarks, and the fountains were an exploded mess, twisted and torn apart with water gushing everywhere. Dead men and women littered the ground next to it.

  There was no excuse for the MMP not to be here, which had to mean that Robert had hired Wildly and his crew. This was why the crime lords were taking the law into their own hands: the law was being trounced on even by the lawmakers—the High Judge and the Ministry.

  These crime syndicates, other than Wildly, were indeed the only valuable asset that Mars had against the coming Dunrakee. They were like a rich man’s mafia slash militia.

  “Target the trees first,” ordered Ozzy.

  He lowered Relic, heading straight for a throng of cedars.

  A volley of lasers and AGSR-14 Arrows, air-to-ground, short-range missiles, littered the trees, blowing a cloud of debris into the air along with tree bark, soil, and most likely, torn up bodies.

  He couldn’t bear to watch and veered away, going in for another pass. Sometimes this was part of the job, and he hated it.

  He shook his head. Who was he kidding? This was never part of the job, which was another reason he stayed in the shadows, so he didn’t have to deal with blood-filled drama.

  His lone artifact hunting business was usually easy.

  He pulled up and bucked right, doing his best to avoid return fire. A few pangs against Relic’s belly told him he wasn’t successful in that endeavor.

  He zipped around, flying over the mansion, and made a U-turn, flying in for a second pass.

  “Ready the guns,” Ozzy said.

  “On it.”

  Photon fire from Relic’s cannons vibrated the ship. Ozzy zoomed in on the tree-filled yard and winced. Blue photon bolts connected with the grass and shrubbery, tearing it up and splattering rock and soil against the trees.

  Many of Wildly’s black-shirts were thrown, sent spiraling in the air and against trees, or worse, against other dead bodies.

  Several survivors retreated into the streets.

  “I’m chasing them,” said Ozzy, pushing the throttle forward.

  “You don’t have to. Look at your rear cams.”

  Ozzy slid his finger over his holographic display and tapped reverse cams. He lurched back in surprise. “Jonas has that many security guards?”

  It was nuts. A horde of security, maybe topping four hundred or so, were rushing Wildly’s men, who were now in full-on let’s-get-our-asses-out-of-here mode.

  Good, because Ozzy didn’t want to be here any longer. He pulled back on his control stick, nodding. “Yep, they got this mess handled.”

  He turned his craft around and headed for the Tagus Valles exit. It was time to get to Olympus Mons and collect the rest of his money and get off this joke of a planet.

  “Where are you going, Ozzy?”

  “To Olympus Mons.”

  “That isn’t part of my assignment.”

  Finding Ozzy, cuffing him, and sending him to prison was her mission. A mission Ozzy wasn’t too keen about.

  “I’m sorry to hear that.”

  “Drop me off.”

  “Nope.”

  Here, Ozzy could keep tabs on Jozi. Down there, he couldn’t.

  “I’m calling MMP headquarters right now and telling them where you’re going.”

  Ozzy almost laughed. She was MMP through and through. Hell, she grew up an orphan, and Ozzy learned from the last time he was with her that she looked to the Ministry as her family. “Well, tell them good luck in finding me.” He had Indigo on board. With that glowing rock he found on an artifact excursion years ago, not one single tracking technology, including advanced radar, could find him.

  Plus, he wasn’t planning on being above the surface to look for the Ark of the Concordant. He’d be below, in the mole digger, with Indig
o hooked up to it.

  He’d be a ghost. By that time, he’d make sure Jozi’s com devices would be offline or not working.

  Yes, not working. That would be best.

  He pulled out his gun and switched it from kill to stun.

  Jozi came walking around the corner and into the cockpit. She sat next to him in the copilot seat, her arms crossed. Her com device was on her wrist.

  He pointed his gun at her and pulled the trigger.

  6

  Over Dawes, Mars

  Ozzy hovered over Dawes. Jozi was in the seat next to him, knocked out and unconscious. Her com device was on the floor, smashed to pieces.

  The scene below was grim. Where there was once a thriving city, which had been ransacked and taken over by a small Dunrakee terrorist force in the recent past, was now a charred, blackened, and crumbled pile of death and debris.

  No Dunrakee lived there now.

  A vast and empty riverbed, full of rock and red soot, sat on the outermost edge of the destroyed city—one of many extinct rivers that crisscrossed Mars.

  He touched the capsule in his lap, hugging it close to his belly, almost as if keeping it away from any Dunrakee slime that may have somehow lived through Dawes’s end.

  He relaxed his hands around the capsule when he realized no one could have survived the destruction below. Gragas, his Galactic Knight buddy, and Gragas’s team had lit the place ablaze when Ozzy found the cure to the Martian Plague.

  It did two things: ruined a city and rid Mars of the Dunrakee—for now.

  Jozi shifted in her seat and opened her eyes. She smacked her lips together, rubbing her temples. “Why do I have such a headache?” Her eyes widened when she remembered. “You stunned me.”

  “I had to.”

  She looked around. “We’re over Dawes.” She brought her wrist to her mouth. Her lips curled when she saw it was missing. “Where’s my com link?”

  Ozzy shrugged. “Don’t know.”