Battleground Mars (11 page)

“Is there any air on the ship we could salvage?” Rahm asked.

Weathers shook his head. “They retrieved the bottles of air and everything else of value, but they left the portable air scrubbers for some unknown reason. I believe there are about fifty of them in the ship’s emergency locker. You know that each portable scrubber has its own air reserve, I would guess those units would kit out your mission and help us out too when you get back here.”

“That’s what we’ll do. It’s on the way to the Tyrrenha Plateau, it couldn’t be better. Jacques, we have to go and do this, you know that.”

He nodded. “I know, it breaks every rule, but I’m not going to stop you. If you can bring back those portable units it’ll make the whole trip worthwhile.”

“Bringing back DeVries’s people will do that, Jacques.”

“Yes, you’re right, of course, Rahm.”

“Keep that little bastard Tobin Ryles of my back, would you.”

He grinned. He’s not so bad, but yeah, I’ll tell him to back off. You’re leaving now?”

“Right away. Saul, would you assemble the crew in the garage, suit up and make sure we have every weapon we can carry.”

“On my way.”

They watched the big toolpusher left the office. Rahm turned to the manager.

“What’s the latest word from the crew out there?”

For answer he got a blank look. “You mean you haven’t heard from them?”

Fechter shook his head. “Not for a couple of hours, no. The last message said that they were well dug in and defending themselves from about thirty Taurons. The enemy is well armed and they’ve blocked their only exit, they’re trapped in a narrow valley. Their power cells were hit in the initial attack and they’re running low on power, but otherwise they’re ok.”

“Air?”

“They said about eight hours.”

“That was two hours ago, Jacques. Now there are six hours left and it’ll take us four hours to get to the Eastern Star and pick up the portable air scrubbers, an hour to get them out of the crater and another hour to get to the Tyrrenha Plateau. If anything goes wrong those poor bastards are finished.”

“You’d better make sure that nothing goes wrong then. I know you can do it, Rahm. Bring them home.”

He nodded curtly and left.

Tyrrenha Plateau, Mars

He stood in full view of their guns, daring them to shoot. He’d staged the ambush with cunning. They came down this valley and set up their drilling rig. While they were busy he’d brought in a line of their unpowered transport lighters and used them to build a blockade across the valley’s mouth. It had been beautifully executed, they hadn’t suspected a thing. When one of their security patrols came upon it, he’d stood up and roared and the man turned tail and run back to his comrades, too scared to come and fight him like a warrior. They were pressing in close now, and there was no need for the blockade. His soldiers had gone forward and were sniping at the humans. He wasn’t sure if they’d hit anyone, but it didn’t matter. Sooner or later they’d run low on air, food, water or ammunition and they’d have to come out. Then it would be his time. Perhaps tonight, tomorrow at the latest, they’d feast on the flesh and blood of the humans. He looked across at the three Taurons that he’d lost when the humans used their laser cannon to repel one of their attacks. They’d died bravely. Tomorrow they’d be avenged, many times. They would soon know that the power of the Taurons was greater than they’d ever imagined. He stood tall and shouted to the distant mountains. The terrible, eerie, tremolo echoed across the barren Martian landscape.

They loaded the buggy. Kacy had managed to fit a second laser cannon to Kaz’s observation tower and they were equipping the vehicle with everything that they could possibly need to mount the operation. She’d also loaded spare fuel cells in the cargo hold to replace the damaged ones in the DeVries’s vehicles. They suited up and Rahm climbed in and the rest followed. He was about to signal for the airlock door to be opened when he saw Fechter running into the garage clutching a message pad. He signaled for Rahm to stop.

“What’s up?”

“We received a message from Earth. The Taurons have attacked again.”

“Jesus Christ, how did they let that happen? I thought they’d stopped all that.”

There’d been a number of attacks years ago, after the two races began fighting for control of the Mars trevanium reserves. After several devastating raids the military forces on Earth had combined to establish a chain of semi-automated defenses, including platforms in permanent orbit. They were supposed to detect and destroy any incoming raiders.”

“They’ve developed a new approach,” Jacques replied. “It’s a type of stealth tactic, they were able to go past the platforms and attack our installations. One of them was the Mars launch base, so I doubt it was an accident. They’ve got another ship being prepared for another launch, so they’re starting a crash program to bring it into use to get to us. But the net result is that we have to wait an extra three months. That’s almost nine months in total.”

“Can we do it?”

He shrugged. “We’ll have to, but it’ll be close, our life support systems are going to be pushed to the limits. I wish I hadn’t agreed to letting you go out there, but I know it’s too late to call it off. Besides, I’m not unsympathetic. I know there’s a lot hanging on this. I want those people back as much as I do. But there’s a reason I wanted to speak to you before you left.”

He could feel his team listening to every word.

“If you find anything that might help us on the Eastern Star, bring it back with you. We need life support equipment. It’s going be desperate with the extra wait for the relief. Apart from the portable air scrubbers, I want any cylinders you find, anything else, I don’t know, look around and see what the salvage crews left. You know the situation.”

Rahm nodded. “We’ll do what we can.”

He signaled for the inner airlock door and drove forward as it opened.

Tyrrenha Plateau, Mars

Damian Hacker walked around their positions, making sure that every man there was behind cover. He came to Gabi Aaronsen and peer through her faceplate. He was gratified to see that she didn’t appear to be too frightened.

“How are you holding up?”

“I’m ok,” she said. There was a small shake in her voice, she was entitled to that.

“Watch the sector I assigned to you, don’t worry about anywhere else.”

“I know,” she replied. “Damian, are we going to get out of this?”

“Sure, of course we will.”

“Really? How will we do that, fight our way past thirty of those monsters with no power and not much air?”

She was no fool, of that he was certain. “I’ve no idea, Gabi. What I do know is that we’re alive, we’ve got guns and our people know we’re here. It’ll work out.”

“I thought they had a problem with their air scrubbers, they were going into lockdown. That means no one can leave Mars Base to come for us. Isn’t that what they said?”

“That’s true. But they’ll figure it out.”

“Yeah, right.

He walked away to the next position, hoping to Christ that they weren’t as perceptive as that girl had been. Gabi watched him go. So they were screwed, unless someone came to their rescue. She wanted to burst into tears, but she controlled herself to think about a way out. Her thoughts drifted to Rahm. She wished he was here, more than anyone else in the whole of the solar system. Then it came to her. Rahm! He would come, of course he would. She could see the others staring at her, as if she was somehow having hallucinations.

Plain of Araby, Mars

They bumped across the Mars surface, Rahm kept their speed to the maximum. Kaz and Brad were on constant alert for enemy aliens. He twisted the wheel to avoid a small crater that appeared unexpectedly in front or them. They were driving in the dark, the boulder strewn plain littered with rocks and pits that would destroy them if they smashed into them. He had no choice but to keep the speed up, they had limited air. If they didn’t reach the trapped crew quickly there’d be no point in reaching them at all. He found a smoother trail that led them forward and swung onto it. They were using the powerful working lights to travel, which had a range of as much as twenty miles. It was enough to give a faint reflection from Mount Nili in the far distance. Beyond Mount Nili lay Isidris Bay, the gateway to Elysium, the Tauron base. It was bandit country, he swung off the trail and headed further south. The going got rough again as they hit the edge of the Meridian Steppe, then there was a long, smooth drive towards Huygens Crater. He almost drove into it, the drive had taken three and half hours of heavy concentration, Rahm had almost gone into autopilot as the hundreds of tiny details he needed to resolve to make this mission a success coursed back and forth across his mind. The ground was changing and they hit a large rock almost hard enough to overturn them. He braked the buggy and climbed out to take a look. There was no damage apart from a bend in the front cowl, but the headlights illuminated a dark, empty space in front of them. Huygens Crater. He shivered as he though how near they’d come to plunging straight into the depths of the hole. Saul climbed out to look.

“A close one, Rahm.”

He nodded. “That it was. We’ll leave the buggy here, Kaz and Brad can stay to keep an eye on it.

They scrambled down the slope with difficulty. The going was precarious with loose shale that made every step treacherous. The low gravity on Mars helped, the journey on Earth would have been almost impossible. Rahm shone his portable lamp forward; the powerful beam lit up the base of the crater, in the distance laid the wreckage of the Eastern Star. When they reached the ship they could see that the frequent dust storms had scoured the hull down to the metal, in the dry atmosphere there was no corrosion or oxidization, the alloy ship shone bright silver. It was also half submerged in the ground, the soft dust and sand of the surface had showered down over it. Saul got there first and tried to open the hatch. There was no response, the handle was locked solid.

“It could have been distorted in the landing, so we’ll need to find a way to force it.”

“Why not blast it off with a laser burst?” Rahm asked.

Saul shrugged. “It’s as good an idea as any. Stand back, there’ll be some sparks.”

He pointed his pistol at the door handle and pulled the trigger, the bolt of energy flared against the door and a hole appeared. He tried to open it, but it was still jammed.

“I’ll give it another go,” he muttered. He stood back and fired again, and again, five shots in all. He’d shot off the area around the hinges as well as the lock, when he went to open the hatch, it simply fell out onto the floor of the crater. The hole that led inside was dark and black, none of them needed reminding that this ship was the grave of hundred of people. Neither did they need reminding that it may yield the means of life for many more. Rahm stepped forward and entered the hull.

The others followed as he went further into the ship. Most equipment of value had been salvaged and it was little more than a bare hull. In places there were signs of the former crew, a shoe left abandoned on the floor, a plate tossed into the corner of a cabin. There was little else. The part of the ship that contained the cargo hold was underground now that the dust and sand had settled so deeply. They were fortunate that the emergency locker was at the top of the ship, at least in the position it lay now. Located between the bridge and the emergency chutes, they reached the hatch cover and unlocked it. Every one of them breathed a sigh of relief, the portable air supplies were intact, all of them. Fifty sets, each one still carefully sealed as it had been on the day the ship left Earth on its last, fateful voyage.

“Nathan, see if you can find something to carry these in. There must be a bag somewhere we can use.”

The driller nodded and wandered off. Kacy and Saul were lifting the set out one by one, careful not to damage them. By the time Nathan Wenders returned with an old, empty ore bag, they had them all out stacked ready. Rahm had walked through to the bridge and was examining the few pieces of instrumentation that were left. The datacard that contained the ship’s manifest was still pushed into the slot in the console, so he took the opportunity to pull it out and put it in a pocket. It would be that there was something more worth salvaging in the ship’s hold. But only if it could ever be dug out from under several tons of Martian sand. He returned to the emergency locker, his crew was finishing loading the air supplies. Saul looked up.

“We’re all done here.”

“Good, let’s go, it’s time to get those people out before the Taurons serve them up for breakfast.”

They dragged the sack up to the crater’s edge, although even in low gravity it was a hard struggle. It required all four of them to pull it over the loose shale that slipped back a yard for every two yards they went forward. They reached the buggy and stowed the air supplies.

“Any sign of the enemy?” Rahm asked Kaz.

The Arab shook his head. “They’re all tucked up safely in bed, or wherever those monsters go at night.

“Except for the ones surround the drilling crew.”

“Yes, except for them.”

In spite of the desperate need for speed Rahm had to drive slower across the Iapygian Sink, a vast bowl of loose dust and sand. The only clue to danger was tiny bumps or depressions in the smooth, soft surface that indicated either rocks or crevasses. They managed to cross without mishap and in front of them, they saw it. In the glare of their worklights, the ground was beginning to rise up to form the vast, raised mound that was the Tyrrenha Plateau. The crew was trapped in a valley at the edge of the plateau, Rahm checked his navigation and worked out they were only five miles away from the site.