Conflict On Mars Read online

  Nilos smiled and clapped him on the shoulder in greeting, then turned to give Shona a hug before he said, “Let’s get out of here and find a real bar. I need a drink!”

  Chapter 3

  Calin took Nilos to his favorite bar in Mars City, The Dry Martian. It was one of the few non-cartel owned bars on the planet. He may smuggle for the cartels, but it didn’t mean he wanted to drink their booze. As far as he was concerned, The Dry Martian produced the best microbrew on Mars. Before they went in the bar area, they each checked their weapons into a lockbox. Stumpy, back at The Dive Bar, wasn’t the only bar owner with a no-violence policy. Since Mars was still very much a beginning colony, most establishments inside the city limits maintained their own safety rules. The local law enforcement was more interested with tourist safety and upholding corporate greed. The less-civilized culture of the colonial society appealed to Calin. It was his belief that once a civilization became too tame, it stagnated.

  They entered through the batwing doors and headed to the back of the bar where the light was low. Calin opened his tab on the table screen and ordered a pitcher of house brew and 3 mugs.

  “So to what do we owe the pleasure of your company?” asked Calin.

  Nilos took a quick sip of his beer, raised an appreciative eyebrow and then took a long swallow before he replied in a hushed voice “They had me stationed up on the moon Titan to oversee the construction of a black op military base for the Planetary Patrol Division. But I think I have a problem.”

  “Problem?”

  “Most of the personnel on Titan are strictly construction, I only had a few teams for basic security. But I’m beginning to believe that members of the Kyrios Cartel may have infiltrated the base.”

  “Kyrios? Wasn’t that the group that financed Silas Drummer’s rise to power back on Luna?” asked Calin. He hadn’t thought about that man in a long time. Silas was the former Governor of Caldera City on the Moon. It was there where they had first met Nilos and learned of his people. Was it only last year they had stopped Silas from blowing up the Moon? he realized in surprise. And now Nilos shows up on Mars, out of nowhere? Why?

  Nilos continued, “The one and the same. The Titan base is supposed to be Top Secret. Yet somehow, they not only found out about it, but I'm pretty sure they have infiltrated it.”

  “Why are you telling us? Have you told your superiors?” asked Shona.

  “Yes, of course. But my people, the entire Tereo group, are overwhelmed already with the Moon base you helped us recover from Silas. They can’t spare any personnel to help. There is also a power struggle going on, some are trying to increase our presence and control in the Planetary Patrol Division.” He waved a hand dismissively, “but that is just political junk you need not worry about. I don’t.”

  “Why are the Kyrios interested in Titan? I thought they were interested in money and power on Earth?” asked Calin.

  Nilos sat back in his chair, slumped. “Because they are not just interested in Earth.” He looked up at them apologetically, “I’m sorry my friends but I have not been completely honest with you, about the Kyrios.”

  Calin narrowed his eyes, “After all we’ve been through together? Really?”

  “I said I’m sorry didn’t I?” Nilos took a deep breath and continued, “The Kyrios Cartel is not just another criminal organization, they are Atlanteans.”

  “What?!” exclaimed Calin. “I’m sorry, what a minute. You said the Tereo were the only Atlanteans?”

  “We were, until about a decade ago. While most of us Atlanteans believe in protecting Terrans and not interfering, some believed differently.” Nilos took another sip of his beer. “The Kyrios are a group of Atlanteans that split off from Tereo to focus on their own agenda.”

  Calin pursed his lips in frustration and asked, “And what would be that agenda?”

  Nilos looked across the table with a blank face, “To rule the Solar System. They believe that is what our ancestors meant to do until they disappeared. For the past decade that is all they worked for. As Atlanteans, they consider it their right to rule and enslave the people of Earth and the Solar System. And they have been gaining power and influence, so they expanded out to the colonies, like here on Mars. They know the Solar Planetary Patrol Division has little to no established power out here so they can operate more freely.”

  Nilos leaned forward and wrapped both hands around his mug before he continued. “And I’ve been hearing rumors the Kyrios leader has already set up his power base here on Mars because of a big discovery that concerns my people's history.”

  Calin contemplated what Nilos said. Sometimes it was still hard for him to comprehend the truth about Nilos's ancestors, the ancient civilization of Atlantis. He still wasn't sure how a prehistoric advanced civilization kept themselves secret from the rest of the population for a thousand years.

  Shona piped in, “Discovery? Out here? The discovery of an Atlantean base on the Moon surprised you, but didn’t you have any idea your people had been all the way out to Mars?”

  “None, which is why this is so puzzling. And that makes it that more important I find out what they found.”

  He looked up at them from peering into his beer and continued “I know we asked a lot of you last year on the Moon, but do you think you could help me track down any trace of the Kyrios faction here on Mars? For now, I’m alone on this with no support.”

  Before Calin could ask more questions, Shona cut in, ”Of course! We will be more than happy to help you out.” And with that she shot Calin a “don’t argue” look.

  “Now I should warn you, the leader of Kyrios is possibly a lunatic. My intel has told me over the years he has been obsessed, even more than we have, in finding any hint of our people’s power and technology. He doesn’t care about finding out what happened to them or where they went, just what they left behind and how he can use it to grow his power.”

  Calin noted an extra level of venomous in Nilos voice and asked “It sounds like you know the guy.”

  Nilos grimaced, ”He was my best friend, years ago before he split off from the Tereo.”

  Calin starred at Nilos. There was something else Nilos wasn’t saying, but he had stopped himself before saying it. What was Nilos hiding? “So who is this lunatic and former friend?” he asked.

  “Zenas. Zenas Ferran.”

  Chapter 4

  Calin, through years of habit, had been keeping an eye on the entrance to the bar. So he was the first to spot a group of six suspicious men enter and sit at a table across the bar.

  “Don’t look now, but I think your fan club has found you.” He said to Nilos.

  Without turning around, Nilos asked, “How many?”

  “Six, straight across the bar. At first I thought they were another work group on break, but their coveralls are clean. And while they are trying to hide it, they are keenly interested in you.”

  Nilos, with a grin, said “Any group of guys looking at me while our lovely Shona is sitting right beside me is definitely up to no good.”

  Shona gave an appreciative smile. “Well, perhaps I ought to get their attention then.” With a twinkle in her eye, she used the table screen to send a round of whiskey shots to the men’s table.

  The group of men appeared confused at the arrival of the drinks and refused to touch the whiskey.

  “That confirms it. Any group of guys that ignores drinks bought by a lady are up to no good.” Calin remarked, his hand automatically going down to his holster, but paused when he realized it was empty, his gun was still in the lockbox.

  “Six against three, unarmed, this is not the best odds. We need our guns.” Calin frowned.

  Shona stood up, knocked back the last of her beer, and announced, “One distraction, coming up!”

  Calin objected, “No! Wait!” But she was already gone and across the bar.

  Nilos grinned and commented “She's still the handful, isn’t she?”

  “Yup, that she is,” Calin said with a laugh.

  Shona had slid up beside a rather large miner at the bar and hung on his arm. Calin wasn’t sure what she was saying, but it was barely a minute before the miner’s hand slid down Shona’s back. As he watched the miner’s hand go lower, he stood up only to be restrained by Nilos who said, “Easy there, she knows what she is doing.”

  Calin hesitantly sat back down but continued to keep a watchful eye on Shona and the miner. When the miner’s hand moved too low, Shona stepped back and let swing a backhand across the miner’s stunned face and yelled, “What do you think you’re doing?”

  Immediately the surrounding miners gathered around to encircle the stunned patron. While the crowd struggled to remove the large 'handsy' miner from the bar Calin and Nilos got up to meet Shona at the door where they retrieved their weapons from the lockboxes.

  “That wasn’t a very nice thing to do to that innocent man.” Nilos accused.

  She raised an eyebrow, “What makes you think he was innocent? I knew he would be grabby from past run-ins with him.”

  They used the bar brawl as cover and snuck out the door into the alley. “The Sea Rover is this way, hurry!” said Calin and pointed the direction. But before they could exit the alleyway the six Kyrios agents from inside came out and spread out across the mouth of the alley to block their escape.

  “Shit!” Calin exclaimed as they all dove for cover and drew their weapons.

  All six agents pulled out blasters from underneath their dust coats. Calin heard the leader order “We need Nilos alive, the others are expendable.”

  “Hey! Who are you calling expendable?” Calin yelled. He peeked his head around the dumpster he was using for cover. The contact lens in his right eye targeted and locked in the two closest agents as primary targets. The power le
vels in his cybernetic arm jumped up in preparation. He withdrew his head and leaned against the dumpster, took a deep breath, and pointed his blaster blindly around the corner of the dumpster to fire off two fast shots. Thanks to his lens target lock, his arm knew the location of the two targets and hit them center mass. The sudden shots sent the remaining four agents to scramble for cover at the mouth of the alleyway.

  “That’s two down. 4 to 3 is much better odds,” he stated.

  Nilos held up a flash bang and requested, “If at all possible, I would like to keep one alive for questioning?”

  His request enlisted a snort and comment from Shona, “Maybe, but no promises.”

  Calin raised his eyebrow regarding Shona’s level of hostility. He would need to talk to her later and see what was bothering her. Later though; right now they had their hands full.

  He held a hand up and counted down with his fingers. When he got to one Nilos heaved the flash bang over his head toward the agents. As soon as the bright flash of the grenade blinded and distracted the enemy agents, Calin and Shona rushed out of cover toward the mouth of the alley.

  Shona used a stack of pallets as a springboard to launch herself onto the shoulders of an agent who was still rubbing the stars out of his eyes. She wrapped her legs around his neck and flipped head over heels to sent him flying down the alley. She hit the ground in a roll and continued her forward momentum to sweep the legs out from under the closest agent. She spun around and finished him with a quick kick to the head.

  Calin, his arm still amped up with power, let loose with a powerful uppercut to the chin of the next agent. The increased power levels in his arm hit the agent hard enough to lift his feet off the ground as his eyes rolled back in his head.

  Nilos wasted no time and had thrown the last agent to the ground, disarmed him, and had his arms twisted behind his back in a painful position. As he straddled the agent, Nilos slapped some restraining cuffs on him and then yanked him to his feet.

  Nilos turned to Calin and asked, “Can I use your ship? I need a private place to question this fool.”

  “Right this way,” Calin gestured with a nod of his head and led them to where he had the Sea Rover parked nearby.

  He dragged a chair over to the center of the cargo hold and helped Nilos secure the agent with some tie down straps. Nilos hitched a hip onto a nearby crate and glared at the agent, “You understand the routine. I will ask you some questions and you will tell me everything you know.”

  The secured agent silently glared at Nilos and clenched his jaw.

  Calin stepped forward, opening and closing his cybernetic fist, “Need help softening him up?” he offered.

  “Nah, I’ve got something a lot more effective.” Nilos pulled two triangular pieces of metal out of his pocket and jingled them in his hand. The prisoner’s eyes widened and his head drooped in defeat. Nilos walked behind the agent and pressed the triangle shapes, each the size of his thumb, to either side of the agent's head above his ears. Nilos turned to Calin and Shona, “We discovered these little gizmos in the Moon base a few months ago, they act like an electronic truth serum. It takes a little while to get the correct calibration per person, but once that happens they sing like a canary. This will take a few hours, why don’t you two get that drink these clowns interrupted and I’ll let you know when I have something.” He turned back to the prisoner, rolled up his sleeves and began to carefully tap on the controls of the little triangles.

  Calin and Shona spent a quiet hour in the galley, waiting. Shona stared off into space and quietly sipped her beer. Calin tried several times to engage her in conversation but she only replied in simple monosyllable statements. He had suspected of something bothering her the past few months, but he had brushed it off. But now her hostility was becoming an issue, it was useful at times he had to admit, but not always necessary.

  They were still sitting in uncomfortable silence when Nilos shuffled into the room and went directly to the wall cooler to grab a beer for himself.

  Shona peered uncomfortably out the doorway and down the hall toward the cargo hold, “Um… what did you do with the prisoner? Do I need to go keep an eye on him?”

  Nilos took a swig of his beer and shook his head, “No need, I let him go. I got all the information out of him I could. And we don’t have time to transfer him to PPD custody.”

  “Well, did you learn anything?” asked Shona.

  He nodded his head, “It’s worse than I thought. All this time we were building a base up on Titan, we thought we were ahead of them. We were sure we had beat Kyrios to the colonies.” Before he continued, he slammed his bottle down on the table, “but it turns out Kyrios was already here! And they’ve been here since the beginning!”

  “So where are they hiding? I would have caught hints of a criminal organization that big on Mars,” said Calin.

  “Turns out they were one of the original, and largest, mining companies to come to Mars. They’ve been hiding in plain sight as the Hades Mining Company.”

  Calin nodded his head, “I’ve heard of them. they employ a lot of miners in Mars City. They have over a dozen dig sites scattered around Mars, and those are just the ones I've heard of.”

  Nilos gripped his beer until his knuckles turned white. “This is Mars, they could be anywhere.”

  Chapter 5

  Zenas Ferran paced across the bridge of the Atlantean Command Battleship, his head down and hands clasped behind him. He listened to the readiness reports from the fleet as they were called into the work stations around him. The clamor of the bridge personal as they prepared the ancient ship for launch was a welcome and long awaited symphony to his ears. He stopped and stared out the floor-to-ceiling window over the forward hull of the battleship. In the distance he could almost make out the shapes of the other battleships as they each initialized their startup sequences and prepared for launch.

  He grinned in anticipation, he couldn’t wait to surprise the Solar System Authority with the appearance of twenty fully functional Atlantean battleships. Hidden for centuries on Mars, the legend of the fleet had been passed down through his family line for generations, a secret only the Ferran family had known. For generations, a legend of a lost fleet hidden somewhere off Earth had been whispered. And that one day a Ferran would recover the fleet and use it to regain the Atlantean people’s rightful place as rulers of the Solar System.

  Years ago, when the colonization of Mars had finally begun, he had made sure his mining company had been one of the first boots on the ground. It had taken years to discover the location of the hidden fleet, and quite a substantial amount of money had gone into making sure no one else knew about it or its location. While the other colonists where scouring the planet for water, he was literally sitting IN the biggest water reserve on the planet.

  Now he and the Kyrios Cartel had control of the most advanced battle fleet in the Solar System and it was time for the Atlanteans to take their rightful place as rulers. The reason for the existence of such a fleet and how it should be used had been a source of intense discussion among the Kyrios Cartel leaders. But as far as it concerned him, he could think of no other reason why their ancestors left this fleet behind but for their descendants to regain their rightful position as rulers of the Terrans.

  The approach of his Second In Command brought him out of his reflections. He watched Nicia approach and the sight of her reminded of why it had been a smart decision to make her his Second, and his wife. Tall, blond, athletic, and even by Atlantean specifications, she was a perfect specimen. And as Head Scientist for the Kyrios Cartel she was also his intellectual match.

  She snapped to attention in front of him and threw a salute before speaking. Married or not, they had to maintain a certain decorum in front of the troops.

  “Sir, readiness reports slight delays in engine startups on five of the ships. I estimate two days before we can initialize the reactors safely for full power.”