Red Eden: Homeworld Bound | Chapter 7: Death of an Enterprise
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Chapter 7: Death of an Enterprise
“I could use some backup,” Erwin shouted over the radio.
Jack and Derek hurried up the nearest emergency stairwell. Just as they reached the rooftop, Erwin burst through the door and collided into them. All three men tumbled down the stairs. Jack regained his footing and picked up his weapon.
“I can’t get a clear shot with two VTOLs dogging me,” Erwin said as he picked himself up. “You two need to distract them.”
“How?” Derek asked, getting up.
A hail of bullets ripped through the rooftop door. Jack and his companions instinctively ducked. The bullets ricocheted off the walls, and one of them bounced off Jack’s helmet.
Erwin turned to the door with a growl, gun held at the ready. “Get down to the parking lot and draw their fire. I’ll take ‘em down from up here.”
Jack wasn’t particularly keen on playing the bullet magnet yet again, but hey, teamwork. “Alright,” he grumbled, “Derek, let’s roll.” They returned to the ground floor. Jack kicked through the emergency exit and rushed headlong into the parking lot. The high-pitched whirr of VTOL engines drowned out all other noise. A wide beam of light focused on him from above.
“Martians,” a voice boomed over a loudspeaker, “you are surrounded. Surrender now and Mother will grant you mercy.”
Jack stared into the beam of light. In a single motion, he flipped off the VTOL with his left hand while he aimed his Solokov with his right. He then performed a running spray’n’pray. Screaming like a madman, he sprinted down the parking lot, bullets flying in all directions. He didn’t know where Derek was or what Derek was doing. Jack only knew that he had to get to cover quickly.
He hit the ground and rolled underneath a bus. The bus creaked and groaned as it wilted under intense gunfire. Before long, bullets started ripping up the pavement, sending bits of asphalt flying into his visor. He rolled out from under the bus and dashed to cover behind a tree. He heard a rapid thudding noise like a woodpecker pecking wood with a high-powered jackhammer. There was a crack followed by a groan, and then Jack realized the heavy tree was about to topple over him. He jumped out of the way just as the tree slammed down upon a sedan, severing the car in half.
Jack once again performed a running spray’n’pray. “Erwin, you sure are taking your sweet time!”
“Goodbye sister,” came Erwin’s ominous reply.
Jack heard a boom. The high-pitched whine of the VTOL turbines began to oscillate in frequency. He leaped over the hood of a car and took cover. Glancing over his shoulder, he spotted the VTOL spinning out of control as it careened towards him. “Shit!”
He jumped.
It crashed.
And exploded.
Fire engulfed Jack as he flew through the air. He hit the ground rolling and got back on his feet. He watched with wide eyes as the downed VTOL shot out blisteringly bright arcs of electricity that buzzed like radio static amped to max volume. One of the crewmen charged out of the raging fire, arms flailing as he howled to the high heavens. An electric arc struck him through the heart, and Jack swore he saw the man’s skeleton. The poor bastard fell to his knees and collapsed face-first on the pavement.
“Sky’s clear,” Erwin said. “You guys still alive down there?”
“By the skin of our teeth,” Derek replied.
“Ground troops will be on you soon,” Ellen said, “and they’ve blocked all roads out.”
Jack jogged back to the lobby of the retirement home where he met up with Derek. Jack pointed at the APC that had crashed through the home. “We could use that to break through their lines.”
Derek walked over to the armoured vehicle and threw open its rear hatch. “There’s enough space in here for our ATVs.”
“Even if you guys manage to break out,” Ellen said, “you’ll run into more of them overland. You need to complete the rest of your journey by sea.”
A window shattered from above. Erwin leaped out and landed next to Jack. The Huoxing man dashed towards their ATVs, shouting, “I can see them coming. Move your asses!”
All three men moved their ATVs to the rear the armoured personnel carrier. Derek dismounted, ran into the lobby through a smashed window and came back dragging a wooden coffee table. He threw the coffee table across the gap between the APC’s rear bumper and the pavement, forming a ramp into the personnel carrier.
Jack backed his ATV up the makeshift ramp and parked behind the driver’s seat. He dismounted and moved to the driver’s seat, gagging at the sight of the decapitated driver whose skull had exploded. Jack leaned over the corpse to open the door. Though he knew his helmet was vacuum sealed, he held his breath anyway as he wasn’t keen on finding out what blood and gore smelt like. The door opened, and he pushed the headless corpse out of the driver’s seat.
He grabbed a dirty rag off the floor and hastily wiped the windshield. He tried telling himself the goopy red paste was just spaghetti and meatballs, but that only worsened his nausea. After wiping for a full minute, there was still a reddish-pink smear on the windshield. Short of using concentrated bleach and a high-powered industrial scrubber, the window wasn’t getting any cleaner, so he discarded the bloody rag and took the driver’s seat.
By now, Erwin and Derek had backed their ATVs into the cramped space. Derek shut the rear hatch and locked it. “Jack, get this thing rolling.”
Jack studied the ATV’s control interface. It was an electric vehicle, and aside from the steering wheel, all the controls were on the twenty seven inch touch screen display affixed to the dashboard. He skimmed over the control functions and realized that the interface wasn’t too dissimilar from the control interface of the electric rovers back on Mars. He set the vehicle to reverse and backed out of the retirement home. He set the vehicle to drive and the APC lurched forward.
As he rolled off the parking lot, he spotted several APCs bearing down on him. “Hold tight!” He made a hard turn just as the enemy opened fire. Bullets pounded the hull of the APC. He slammed his foot over the pedal and accelerated down the street.
“You know which way you’re going?” Erwin asked.
“Totally lost,” Jack admitted. He didn’t remember how they got here from the pier, and even if he did, he could barely see out of the tiny blood-smeared windshield. He turned on the high-beams to illuminate the road ahead only to reveal two APCs blocking the road. “Hold onto something. It’s gonna get bumpy!”
He gripped the steering wheel and pressed himself against his seat. The armoured vehicle slammed into the enemy APCs at a hundred kilometres an hour, throwing him forward with such force that his helmet cracked the windshield. Dazed, he looked up and saw that they had cleared the blockade.
“Jack,” Ellen said amidst the protesting cries of his companions, “use SolarNav to navigate to the pier.”
“Right.” Jack opened the SolarNav app on his virtual interface and followed the navigation arrows. “You guys alright back there?”
“Peachy,” Erwin groaned.
Once more, bullets struck the hull of the APC, producing a terrifying metallic cacophony.
“They’ll overrun us long before we get onto that trawler,” Derek said. “We need to lose them.”
Jack swerved right down a dark alley, crashed through a half-rotted fence and brought the APC to a screeching halt in the back alley of a housing complex. “Get out. I’ll draw them away while you guys get to the trawler.”
“What about you?” Derek asked.
“Well obviously wait for me before you take off. I ain’t gonna be a martyr. Go!”
Derek threw the hatch open and took off on his ATV. Erwin followed suit without a word.
“Hey!” Jack yelled. “You forgot to close the hatch!”
Too late. The bright lights of an approaching APC flooded into the cabin. Jack slammed his foot over the pedal and crashed his APC through the wall of the housing complex. After a tumultuous ride through someone’s living room, he rammed through the final wall and bounced onto the street amidst a pile of broken bricks. He made a hard left and accelerated down the road before making a hard right down another alleyway.
He parked the APC, got off the driver’s seat and mounted his ATV. He revved the quad electric motors and charged out of the APC’s rear hatch. The wheels hit the ground bouncing. The ATV swerved. Jack regained control and drove down an adjoining alley. He then followed SolarNav’s navigation arrows through the city. He glanced over his shoulder and was relieved to see that the enemy was no longer following him. He turned his gaze back to the road ahead and sped towards the pier.
When he arrived, Erwin and Derek had already boarded the fishing trawler with their ATVs. Jack steered his ATV towards the on-ramp and made the jump onto the deck. He landed, dismounted and took the short flight of stairs up to the captain’s cabin where Derek and Erwin were waiting.
“You know how to drive this thing?” Erwin asked Derek.
Derek’s right hand hovered over the ship’s controls. The light from Derek’s helmet lit up the instrument panel. “So many buttons and levers…” He tapped the fuel gauge. “Holy shit. This thing burns petrol. Old school.”
Jack pointed at the keys hanging above Derek’s head. “That thing looks like it goes in that hole.” He pointed at the ignition switch.
Derek grabbed the key and used it to turn the ignition. The engines rumbled to life. The cabin lights flickered then burnt out.
An external beam of light lit up the cabin.
Jack glanced out the window. “Shit. They’ve found us.”
“Guys, cut the lines,” Derek said as he put one hand over the steering wheel and the other over the throttle. “I’ve got this.”
Jack and Erwin rushed out of the cabin to cut the lines. After Jack cut the last line, he got down on his knee and took cover behind a solid-wall railing. The aluminium wall was thin and flimsy, but at least it would conceal his position as he moved about the deck.
“Suppressing fire!” Erwin sprayed the pier with his Dapao Shredder.
Jack rose out of cover and opened fire on the enemy soldiers, forcing them to take cover behind their APCs. One soldier popped out to sneak in a shot. Jack fired at the soldier’s general direction, forcing the soldier to duck back into cover.
“Derek, what’s the holdup?” Erwin demanded.
The boat’s engine sounded like it was yodelling. Jack wasn’t sure if this was normal as petrol-engines simply didn’t exist on Mars on account of the danger of burning up precious oxygen in an enclosed environment.
“These primitive controls are finicky,” Derek replied over the radio. “Don’t worry. I’ll figure it out.”
The enemy managed to sneak in a few shots which punched through Jack’s flimsy cover. He rolled to a different position, popped out of cover and fired a few shots back at the enemy. To his horror, he saw that there were now a dozen APCs parked at the pier. Scores of soldiers had taken cover behind their vehicles, concrete barriers and abandoned cargo lifts. There were simply too many to suppress.
By now, the fishing trawler had drifted about ten or twenty metres from the pier. The enemy fired a volley across the harbour. The bullets tore through the ship’s hull, forcing Jack and Erwin to retreat up to the cabin.
“Derek,” Erwin said, “if we don’t get moving now, they’re gonna sink us in the harbour.”
“I got this,” Derek said through gritted teeth. He pulled back the throttle. The engines roared. The ship surged towards the open sea.
Jack breathed a sigh of relief.
“Derek,” Ellen said over the radio, “SolarNav will help you navigate the sea. And by the way, you’re approaching an island. Take care you don’t crash into it.”
Jack stared out the window. He saw only blackness beyond the bow of the ship.
Derek turned the steering wheel. “I’ll get us safely out to sea. You guys take it easy. There’s sleeping quarters in the deck below.”
Between the turbulent ride through the atmosphere, Earth’s gravity, and multiple near-death experiences, Jack was really starting to feel worn. He lumbered downstairs to the lower deck and found himself a nice cozy bed.
***
Aboard the ITS Hiigara II, inside the observation deck of the Dragon Heavy capsule, Ellen played the video recording she had just received from Mars. It was from her father, Cornelius Truss. “Ellen…” From that first word of greeting, she could already detect the strain in her father’s voice. He had dark circles under his bloodshot eyes. He must have been up all night worrying about her. “We have received your latest report and we have come to a decision.” He swallowed audibly. “We are aborting our Earth colonization plans. Solar Express will be shut down; the ITS Hiigara II retired.”
Ellen gasped. “No!”
“I know this is the last thing you want to hear, but it’s for the best. With the Eden Directorate and the Mother of Lies Herself active on Earth, it’s just too risky. The last time she waged war against us, she nearly destroyed our family legacy, downed our entire space fleet and Enon Truss with it. Given how little we know about her and what she’s capable of, it wouldn’t be wise to start another war with her, at least not until we know more.
“And I know what you’re going to say. We’ve poured everything into this project. If Solar Express fails, our family legacy would be in jeopardy. We might even have to liquidate Solar Resources to pay off the enormous debt we’ve incurred to finance this enterprise. Already, our silence has investors and prospective colonists worried. Shares have plunged by seven percent. Solar Express is burning cash by the hour, and revenues generated through ticket sales have plummeted.
“But right now, the only thing I care about is getting you home safely. Ellen, I know you’re going to hate me for this, but I have given Mission Control the order to override your command over the Hiigara. I need you to recall the team you’ve sent to rescue our engineers. I’m sorry, but there’s nothing more we can do for them. You have twenty four hours to get your team safely aboard. After that, the Hiigara will refuel and return to Mars.”
Ellen covered her face as she cried. She couldn’t believe her father was going to let Solar Express die, especially after everything they had been through to see this dream come true. Though it pained her to admit it, this was an act of betrayal. It was treason. Her father had betrayed not only her; he had betrayed the Martian people, their destiny, and their God-given right to take back their homeworld.
“I am so sorry, Ellen. I wish I could do more to help you fight this ancient evil which haunts the Earth to this day. But we are out of resources. We are just one company. One family. We alone cannot shoulder the burden of war… There’s no shame in turning back and coming home. Your mother and I have missed you so much. It would be good to see you again. Take care, my child.”
The video ended.
Ellen looked away in disgust. Dark feelings stirred within her. Heavy words flitted through her mind. Weak. Coward. Traitor. Treason. Betrayal. Betrayer. Betrayed!
She squeezed her eyes shut to force out all her tears. She balled her hands into fists and hissed through her gritted teeth like a coiled rattlesnake. She refused to run. She refused to hide. She refused to allow Gabriella to restore herself to power. Ellen would sacrifice everything to destroy that tyrant so that the Martian people may fulfill their God-given destiny: to lead humanity unto the stars and beyond.
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