Martian Settlement: The Fight For Mars

Chapter 7: Ground Zero

A blip appeared in the sky, looking at first like either Phobos or Deimos, the moons of Mars. The shard of light slowly descended towards the Martian surface like a meteorite and disappeared into a small gully just a hundred metres from Igneon's mining base.

Lucy, Gray, Charlene, Darrius, Roger and Dr. Kapoor, members of Team A donned their EVA spacesuits and stepped into the mobile base. Roger had woken from unconsciousness right after the Pegasus settled into low Martian orbit and had promptly asked to join Team A, arguing that he had been in Igneon's mining base before and his extensive knowledge of the base would be helpful. Dr. Kapoor had pronounced him fit for the mission and there were fortunately two extra EVA spacesuits on board.

Team B was also clad in EVA spacesuits and were checking the mobile base for any damages obtained from the skirmish just an hour ago. Fortunately, there were none. "And I just realised that even if there were we don't have any backup plans for that," mused Lucy.

"Equalising pressure now," announced the pilot over the intercom.

Small air vents, sealed up by plates that moved like camera shutters slowly opened to let air exit the Pegasus into the Martian atmosphere. The plates budged only a little at first, forming a hole with a diameter only a centimetre wide but after a minute, the plates had fully retracted, forming a hole with a diameter of 7 cm.

The Pegasus' ramp lowered and the mobile base rolled out, steadily inching towards the mining base as fast as its motors could spin.

***

"How's it going?" asked Jack, walking over to the console monitoring the mobile base.

"All going well," said Rue, who was monitoring a steady stream of data from the base. "But I've received a message with some intriguing news you might want to hear."

"Go on," urged Jack.

"They found Roger – Andrea's informant tied up and drugged in the mobile base. Dr. Kapoor managed to wake him from unconsciousness and he begged to follow Team A with the consensus that he had been in the mining base before and knows about the base's structure and inner workings pretty well."

"It's already too late but even if you asked earlier I would have asked him to follow Team A anyway," said Jack. "It always helps to have someone who knows the way."

***

The mining base rolled over to the entrance of Igneon's mining base. A metre tall white pole with a cube shaped device on top began glowing. A laser beam shot out from the cube and focused on an encircled spot on the mobile base's hull. The pole pulsed with green light and the blocky, imposing gate swung open.

"Downsides of automated security systems," mumbled Gray as Darrius parked the mobile base next to an Igneon NIMF.

Darrius, Gray, Charlene, Dr. Kapoor, Lucy and Roger clambered out of the NIMF walked over to the entrance.

"You can use your card, right?" asked Lucy.

"It's a long story," answered Roger. "If I use my card, we'll have every security guard pouncing on us in a minute – speaking of which, it's strange that I haven't seen any security guards around."

"There's one there," whispered Gray.

"There can only be a maximum of three guards around now. Must be budget cuts," said Roger.

Charlene produced a hexagonal device and stuck it to the card reader on the door. In the Martian Settlement's control room on the other side of the planet, a team of software engineers began running a code-breaking algorithm.