John Karr - Detonation Event

Nuro jetted low and returned fire, but Devans made the android duck and zigzag away from the laser streams. All were head shots.

For several moments they positioned and repositioned in and out of the network of carbyne-wrapped steel beams. Devans purposely slowed the android.

Nuro jetted high and fired, taking the helmeted “head” off his adversary in a jagged stream of neon red lasers. The body remained upright.

“Too easy!” Nuro chided, linked to the galaxynet and broadcasting everywhere. Grinning like a wolf, he flew toward his unmoving prey, rifle held high in triumph.

Devans unmuted the pod’s microphone. “Too easy is right, terrorist. You always were a head hunter.”

Nuro had time to utter his disbelief as the headless suit raised the rifle and fired. Twisting laser snakes streaked forward to create a hole the size of a cannonball in the middle of Nuro’s chest. A thousand red droplets sprayed the area.

“For Fres,” Devans said.

The spatz rifle drifted away from Nuro’s lifeless hands.

Devans raised his arm computer and executed the previously loaded routines. At once, the shuttle surged for the EFF counterpart while the remaining escape pods blasted off. Five of them streaked outward at differing trajectories, trailing powerful chemical propellant and racing toward the base of MOS-2’s mega-spatz cannon known as Cyclops. The other three targeted the engines. Cyclops sheared Devans’ shuttle in half, but now two high-velocity objects crashed into the EFF shuttle, crushing and ripping open the hull in two places. A brief intense eruption of light and propellant followed, then the remains of both spaceships went dark as a stream of bodies drifted into space.

MOS-2 atomized three of the escape pods. Four others converged upon it from different angles. Pod after pod crashed into the massive orbiter.

All while a lone pod raced away in the direction of MOS-1.

Devans watched the event on the pod’s displays, even as the force of the flight pinned him in the compartment. Mindtexts blinked emphatically in his periphery.

“Shannon Burroughs, you still out there?” he said after linking.

“Ry? Oh my god, is that you in the pod?”

“Yeah, it is. Thought I’d see what’s happening on MOS-1.”

“Oh my god, oh my god, OH MY GOD!”

Vocal mayhem came over the links for several moments.

“Ry Devans!” Karen Wagner voice broke through the others.

“Hey, Doc, got time for a drink?”

“I might be able to work you into my schedule. I’m gonna have to be careful. You’re a sly old fox.”

“I prefer wolf, and maybe not that old,” he said.

Trent Wagner broke in. “Hang on, Cap! Gwen and I just brought Scarlet on board and are towing her pod. Turning to intercept and run parallel with you. We’ll be alongside soon!”

A small dot appeared on the radar holo, approaching from the direction of MOS-1.

A sneeze built up and he let it go, unable to suppress it.

“Please be careful with the body harboring that cold virus!” Karen added. “Just a footnote, you may have saved the human race from extinction.”

“Some note,” Devans said, with a small smile. “Humans go to Mars and unleash the means to extinguish the human race, then the means to save it. Hell, the EFF probably doesn’t even want humans to recover.”

“Zealots mostly prefer that others perish instead of themselves.”

Devans’ smile faded. “We’ll be on the run now. Earth is essentially gone for us.”

“We are a colony, headed toward a new frontier.”

2234 AD

“Careful of the lava pools, sis.”

“You be careful, Dangerboy. Last time you were here you surfed down T2 after that wayward drone.”

“Three years ago already. I’m older now.”

“Older, but I don’t know about wiser. Look at that monster.”

They stared at the angry red top as it spewed molten rock. Glowing veins found jagged pathways down and around the massive trunk of the volcano. Around the base, more rivers of lava ran back and forth over a massive plain of darkening rock.

“Stellar show!” Trent cried, then whistled as he strode a few paces away.

“Yeah, not constant but pretty regular,” Gwen said.

“Does kinda make me want to take a long board down the side, bruh.”

Gwen rolled her eyes. Here they were several miles from T2, and she could feel the deep rumble reverberate inside her chest cavity. The volcano was shrouded in a layer of ash and dust, but it was not as thick as last time they were here.

“Are you two scouting boulders for carbon or just sightseeing?” Alicia Hamilton asked.

A couple pebbles pinged off their helmets, followed by her laughter. One of the pebbles had a softer landing that went unnoticed.

“Easy, Leash!” Trent said, turning from the volcano to lie on his stomach and measure a boulder halfway down a drop-off, where it got dark in a hurry. “I got a dozen stellar prospects we can take back with us on PS-11 .”

“I had a dozen marked fifteen minutes ago!” Hamilton said.

Trent casually picked up a handful of soil and crept toward his sister, who turned and stared at him. He opened his hand and turned it over, sheepishly. “Nah, I wasn’t gonna throw it at you. Not too hard, anyway.”

Gwen’s jaw dropped.

“What?” Trent said. He raised his other hand to swipe at his face shield. “Got a little Mars on the bubble here. What’s your deal, sis?”

She turned on her suit camera. It was like an overcast day on Earth, and the light from her camera lit Trent up to the point where he had to squint.

“What, I got a booger or something? Turn it off!”

Instead she stepped forward and grasped the arm that had swiped at the face shield. She lowered it.

“Hamilton, Burroughs, Norquist—you guys seeing this?”

Trent frowned. He was about to tell her off when Burroughs spoke up.

“Oh my god! Trent!”

Hamilton and Norquist spoke likewise.

“Trent!” Gwen whispered. “There’s condensation on your face shield!”

Trent raised his other hand, realized some of the soil that normally would have drained away like sand was stuck to his glove.

“Mud,” he said. “It’s mud!”

He spun, ran back to the edge of the drop-off, pulling his sister along with him. He turned his helmet light on to merge with hers as they kneeled. The light revealed more and more of the slope until a glittering reflection played on the surrounding rock.

“Water,” Gwen whispered.

Someone high up in echelon of MOS-1 hailed the Martian landing team. Gwen linked and acknowledged.

“Captain Wagner, this is Devans.”

“Commander, we were about to send out a comm blast… We’ve got surface water, and Trent has fog on his face shield!”

“Then our readings for the gravitational field have been accurate. We’ll send word around the orbiter until you guys can pull together a full report and bring samples.”

Silence followed. Gwen and Trent gazed at each other in surprise.

Trent’s eyes bulged. “Uh, CapD… do you know what this means? This is surface water! Humans may be able to live here!”

“It’s terrific news,” Devans said. “But I’m afraid my update isn’t so welcome. We have intercepted communications from our spy satellites. As expected, the EFF is not content to allow our existence here around Mars. MOS-2 is led by Paton Schiflet now. They have repaired its Cyclops and engines and are heading our way.”

“Options?” Gwen asked, shaking her head inside the helmet at her brother, who walked a few paces away because they both already knew the answer.

“We can either retreat farther into space and chance perpetual risk in the orbiter,” Devans said. “Or take Mars as a new home planet and prepare to defend it.”