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Ares
Omar clutched his side, grimacing. His SI suit quickly repaired itself and applied emergency foam to his wound, but the part of his abdomen where the sting round pierced him was still burning with pain. That’s not going to be a quick fix. Omar glanced around at the terrain. There were plenty of rocks to hide behind, but if he stepped out of cover he knew a shot would follow instantly. I can’t stay here, though, he thought. If this is an incursion, I need to get back and warn Jezero. He stood there for a while, panting. The image of Irene convulsing on the ground, choking on her own blood as she held her neck, flashed through his mind. It happened so damn fast. How the hell did we not see the shooter?!
From the direction he had run, Omar heard the sound of approaching Rovers. Sh*t. Drawing his sting pistol and knife, Omar crept forward and peered over the rock outcropping. Sure enough, he saw red dust billowing ahead as a pair of A1-Rovers revved towards him. They were fully manned, each with a driver and a passenger. Four soldiers. This is bad.
Omar stood still, waiting for the Rovers to close the distance. His heart pounded in his chest, but Omar blocked it out from his mind. You’re a soldier. Fear can wait. He took a deep breath, drawing on the routine he had used countless times before. In for four seconds. Hold for four seconds. Out for six seconds. Clear the mind, focus on the breathing. Be calm when you make the shot. He edged his pistol over the rocks, angling it towards his target.
When the Rovers were within sixty feet, Omar pulled the trigger. Pressurized gas erupted from the end of the pistol as the sting round shot out. The bullet whizzed by, piercing the driver’s visor. The now-dead driver slumped at the controls, sending the rover and the passenger careening off to the side.
Seeing their companions downed, the soldiers on the other rover started firing at Omar. Omar quickly ducked down. He heard rounds hit the rock outcropping, faint pings muffled in the Martian atmosphere. Omar ran deeper into the jagged landscape. He found a large basalt column and crouched, panting lightly while he peered around the rock. Come on you bastards. Dismount and come get me.
Eventually, two figures appeared over the crest of the old outcropping. Omar finally got a closer look at his pursuers. The pair wore muted grey-orange SI suits, the typical outfit of scouts. Both held submachine guns, panning them back and forth across the area. Omar noticed that they each had a patch on their shoulder, yet he couldn’t make the insignia out against their camouflage. I’ll have to find out the hard way.
The scouts spread out, searching for Omar. Soon, one of the scouts was within 30 feet of Omar’s position. Omar grabbed a stone from the ground and quietly tossed it, angling it towards where the farther scout was. The stone flew through the air and clattered close to the far scout. The scout’s guns snapped towards where the stone fell. In a split second Omar stood up, firing two shots at the closest scout. The projectiles struck the scout in the heart, sending the scout crumbling to the ground. Omar turned to aim at the second scout, but they had already wheeled around to face Omar and started firing. Omar hit ground, barely avoiding a hail of bullets. He fell on his side, and the pain from his wound lanced through him. Argh! Omar scrambled to his feet. He started hustling across the sands, weaving between the basalt in the direction of the scout. Time to end this!
As Omar turned a corner, he suddenly found himself face to face with the scout. It seemed that both of them had tried to get the drop on the other. They two froze for a moment in surprise, and then they lunged at each other, desperately grappling while they both tried to get a clear shot. Omar dropped his pistol and struck the scout with a left hook. The scout recoiled, and Omar used the opening to drive his knife into the scout’s stomach. The scout fell to the ground, gasping in pain.
Omar leveled his pistol against the scouts head.
“Your friends are gone, Omar said, panting, “tell me who the hell you are, or I’ll blast a hole through your skull!”
The scout remained silent, staring at Omar with a look of stoic contempt. Omar pressed the end of his pistol into the scout’s chest. He leaned close to the scout, speaking in a growling whisper.
“You killed my partner. Tell me what you know, or you’ll wish you had died instead.”
The scout continued his silence. Omar reached for his knife, but a flash of blue on the scout’s shoulder patch caught his eye. When he saw the patch, Omar’s heart skipped a beat. The design of the insignia was a feather outlined in a circle. Blue Origin. The blues must be making a move on Jezero! Omar knew that the invasion force wouldn’t be far behind these scouts. He had to warn the station. Stepping back from the scout, Omar unclipped his radio from his suit, and lifted it up to speak into the receiver.
He never got the chance. A bullet struck him in the back, passing out the other side through his chest. Omar stumbled in shock. He collapsed to the ground, as his SI suit tried in vain to repair the damage.
Omar looked to where the shot had come from. The fourth scout, the passenger of the first rover, stood at the top of the outcropping with a rifle.
“Not all my friends are dead,” the scout said, smiling as he hauled himself up. “And I’ve got a lot more on the way.”
“Omar’s vision began to fade. Before everything went black, he saw a cloud of dust rising from behind the scout that shot him. An army was coming. The invasion had begun.
“Access granted”. The metallic voice of the security system echoed from the keyslide, followed by the hiss of hydraulic locks. The door slid open, and Dr. Guerra quickly stepped inside the spacious cab. She made another swipe with her card on the inside key slide. The door closed, and Dr. Guerra felt the elevator lurch as the cab began to descend rapidly. Her hands fidgeted. She ran over the message once again. Bottom Level ASAP. The object has changed. She felt a slight shudder run through her.
The cab came to a halt after a half a minute. The lights in the cab flickered slightly, before the doors slid open. Dr. Guerra immediately started walking.
The room she had stepped into was a massive natural cavern. Gnarled lines of reddish rock snaked upwards, resembling the bloody maw of a giant beast. Patches of ice occasionally accentuated the stone’s surface like scattered fragments of bone. Even through her SI suit, Dr. Guerra felt the bitter cold of the chamber, and her visor started to fog up from her breath. The cavern was illuminated by large light fixtures set up on the ground. Dozens of researchers moved around the area, manning a plethora of scientific equipment. Dr. Guerra ignored them, heading straight towards the back of the chamber. At this section of the cavern was a wide tunnel, a dimly lit hole extending deep into the martian rock. Standing at the entrance was another head scientist, recognizable by the light blue atom symbol on the left side of his chest. The scientist was speaking with two other researchers, and motioning with his hands toward the tunnel.
“Dr. Abel,” Dr. Guerra called out, “I got your message.”
Dr. Abel made a final remark to the researchers before trotting over to Dr. Guerra. Dr. Guerra could see the lines of nervous strain on Dr. Abel’s face.
“Ahh, good, good, thank you for coming quickly Dr. Guerra. Something big is happening. I’ll explain on the way.” With that, the two of them went off into the tunnel.
“It all started about an hour ago,” Dr. Abel said, nearly tripping while striding as fast as possible. “The Pool started rippling slightly, and then suddenly it was as if the substance, or consistency, or something about it had changed. Even more dramatic is that it's beginning to radiate heat.”
“Is there any danger?” Dr. Guerra asked.
Dr. Abel shook his head. “So far, no. No elevated radiation levels or toxic fumes. The temperature could be a concern, but currently it hasn’t reached a point where the heat is a problem. Just in case, though, I told the other researchers to withdraw from the chamber. Only the monitor equipment is left.”
Dr. Guerra weaved around a pillar. “Have you informed the council?”
“Not yet. I wanted to get your analysis of this, before we get the bureaucrats involved. We don’t want to cause a panic.”
Up ahead, a faint teal light could be seen.
“The light seems brighter,” Dr. Guerra said.
“...It does,” Dr. Abel replied, a frown on his face.
Finally, the pair rounded the final bend. Here was a small cavern, twelve feet at its highest and 30 feet wide. It had a roughly domelike shape, with the bottom edges of the cave seemingly morphing into the shadows. A set of four tripods were arranged around the cavern, with intricate-looking monitors mounted on top of them. In the center of the room, set in a shallow depression, was the source of the light: the Pool.
The pool was a five-foot diameter hole filled with clear liquid. The liquid glowed a teal blue light from within, and resembled a translucent piece of ice. Small ripples radiated from its center in unusually even intervals, as if an invisible hand was tapping the liquid over and over again. The bottom of the Pool couldn’t be seen, but scans had revealed a massive volume of liquid hidden beneath the opening.
Dr. Abel went over to one of the monitors. “Heat has risen by 1.2123 degrees Celsius”, he said. “Still safe, thankfully.”
Dr. Guerra went over to another monitor, which displayed data on the light in the cavern. “The pool seems to be emitting something other than visible light and heat. The monitor can’t seem to register it properly, though.”
Dr. Abel nodded. “We ran tests before you came, but couldn’t seem to register the signatures either.”
Dr. Guerra looked at the pool again. Though the ripples on its surface were highly anomalous, they seemed familiar to her. Almost like…
Suddenly, a shuddering tremor rumbled through the ground, sending a trickle of rock falling to the ground. Dr. Guerra and Dr. Abel snapped up, looking around them.
“What was that?” Dr. Abel asked.
“I have no idea.” Dr. Guerra said. “We’ve never had an Earthquake here!”
The comms system on the Dr. Guerra’s left gauntlet lit up. Dr. Guerra tapped the receive button and spoke into the wrist microphone.
“Hey, what's going on up there? We just felt some shaking down here!”
A panicked voice answered. “Dr. Guerra, Dr. Abel, you need to get up here immediately! We’re under attack!”
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