Red Eden: Sons of Mars | Chapter 6: Remember Who We Were
“Well, isn't this embarrassing?” Captain Tobias clicked his tongue. He was the guard who had led Jack and his crew through town. Jack thought him an ugly man what with his pockmarked face, unkempt beard and hook nose.
Jack's hands were tied behind his back, and his ankles were bound to the legs of his chair. He was in a cell in the basement of Castle Drumalis, the Mayor's residence. Erwin and Derek were in the neighbouring cells. Nobody else shared this dungeon with them, aside from the lone guard on duty and Captain Tobias.
Tobias wagged his finger at Jack's face. “So arrogant ya were, goin' on and on about how ya were gonna blacklist the whole town. Did ya think ya were invincible? Well, it takes more than guns and fancy suits to survive here. Ya also need cunning.”
Jack hated that smug, self-satisfied look on the Captain's face. “Nothing smart about making an enemy of us.”
“Ya barge yar way into town like ya own the place, refuse to obey the authorities, and make threats against the people of Larne. Did ya really think this would end well?”
“We don't have time for your bullshit. We just need to cross the damn sea.” Jack couldn't believe such a simple thing could be so difficult.
“And we would have gladly lent ya our boats. All ya had to do was show us some respect. Instead, ya opened yar big, fat, lying mouth.”
“You've stolen our stuff, assaulted us, and then kidnapped us over your bruised ego? We are a space-faring empire, and this is an act of war.” Empire might be an exaggeration, but the Martians were definitely space-faring.
“Oh, so ya're a space-faring empire now, are ya? Is there anything that comes outta yar mouth that isn't a lie?”
Jack doubled-down. “I can promise you this: others will come for us. Our helmets are connected to our satellites 24/7, so they know exactly where we are at all times.” That may or may not be true as Ellen was pretty busy dealing with the Iceland army.
“Ooh, they're coming for us. Then they can come and take ya home. Why do ya even need our boats for? How did ya get here in the first place?”
“Our aircraft suffered an engine failure.”
“And where are ya goin' that ya're in such a hurry that ya couldn't even take the time to pay the Mayor a proper courtesy?”
Jack decided to give the truth a try. Nothing else was working. “We are fighting a dangerous enemy who has plans to make you and all the peoples of Earth extinct, and you are preventing us from doing our job.”
“Ya're full of shite, and if ya aren't, how do ya expect to defeat such an enemy if primitive screw-heads like us can outsmart ya so easily?”
“If you're not going to listen, why are we even talking?”
“Because there's a chance ya're not full of shite and more of yar people are coming. I want to make this clear. We don't care how powerful ya think ya're. If ya come to our land, ya respect our laws and our customs. Treat us like ya did, and we will fight ya.”
Jack saw the Captain's point and took it. “You're right. I'm sorry that I disrespected your laws and customs.”
“A little late for that now. Ya can make amends by lending us yar weapons.”
“No.”
“That wasn't a choice.”
Jack glowered. “Short term gain. Long term pain.”
“Perhaps, but in the long run, we are all dead if we don't survive the attack. We need yar weapons to push the odds in our favour.”
“You really think a few guns will make that much of a difference?”
“We have seen what it can do. More importantly, it'll lift the men's spirits. What better way to do that than to wield the weapons of the gods themselves to show that they favour us?”
“Why do you need this morale boost so badly?”
“Because the Mayor is a coward who wants to flee on his boats to Belfast, taking half the city's defences with him as well as the merchants who are vital to providing food and comfort to the people who live here. If they run, we stand no chance, but if they stay, we can endure.”
Captain Tobias's motive didn't seem so sinister anymore. He was just trying to save his town. “I get that you're desperate. Believe me, I can relate. We'd love to help you, but we can't pick sides in a conflict that's not ours. We can help you broker a peace agreement. The threat of our intervention will ensure that the peace will last.”
The Captain snorted. “Peace with the Murphy's? Don't make me laugh.”
“Nothin' funny about war either.”
The smug grin on the Captain's face faded. “Aye, that's the first true thing ya said all day.”
“Let us talk to the Murphy's. They will back down. Then you can let us go.”
The Captain stroked his beard. “If ya had said that from the start and not lied so much, perhaps I could have believed ya. Sorry, but ya will have to stay here until the battle's over.” He walked out of the cell and waved for the guard. “Lock it. Keep them comfortable. It'll be a long night tonight.”
The guard locked the cell door.
“Tobias!” Jack shouted. “Don't be so shortsighted! You're making a mistake!”
The Captain was already gone.
In the opposite cell, Erwin grunted. “Good going, Jack.”
“Don't pin this on me,” Jack said.
“Big mouth Jack. Gets us in trouble.”
“You were the one who ran straight into their ambush.”
“You did too.”
“Only because I was trying to help you.”
“Guys,” Derek said, “there's no point arguing about what happened. Let's just figure out how we're gonna fix this.”
“How the hell did you get caught, Derek?” Erwin asked.
“They distracted me then they rushed me from behind. It was chaos out there. Civilians running all over the place, thanks to your reckless shooting spree.”
Erwin slammed his foot to the ground. “They stole our stuff. They pulled their weapons on us. It was within my rights to shoot them dead.”
“Will ya guys shut it?” The guard shouted. “Ya're stuck in here. Just accept it and be at peace.”
Jack took the advice because he had nothing more to say to his companions.
***
Hours later, muffled cries and loud banging woke Jack up. He didn't realize he had fallen asleep.
The dungeon guard had his sword out and shield up. He stood before the door leading to the stairs, waiting in silence.
“What's happening?” Jack whispered.
The guard shushed him. “They're coming. The Murphy's are here!”
Jack wondered how the town's defences could have crumbled so quickly. He noticed the whiff of urine in the air, and then he noticed that the guard was visibly trembling. “Buddy,” Jack said, “let us out. We can help.”
“Be quiet,” hissed the guard, “or you'll draw them here.”
The door burst open. Three men stormed into the dungeon and surrounded the lone guard. The guard spun in nervous circles, jerking his shield up at the slightest movement, and whimpering pathetically.
The three intruders laughed. “Look at what we have here. We have ourselves a pisser.”
One of the intruders pounced the guard from behind and disarmed both the guard's sword and shield. The attacker spun the guard around and pushed him towards the cells. At that moment, Jack saw the attacker's freckled, clean-shaven face clearly for the first time. “Dave?”
Dave turned his gaze. “Jack! What're ya doing here?” He effortlessly flipped the prison guard around and slipped a dagger through the guard's unprotected armpit. Jack winced. The guard howled. Dave covered the guard's mouth and twisted the dagger. “Shh. Shh. Go to sleep now. It's okay. Ya'll meet yar ancestors soon.” The guard slumped to the floor, blubbering for this mother. Dave slit the guard's throat, causing blood to spray all over his face.
Jack looked away, cringing. He still wasn't used to seeing people die violent deaths, and the poor prison guard didn't seem like a bad guy.
“And here I thought ya had betrayed us, Jack. Shoulda known it wasn't ya, the way they fired the guns. Made a lot of noise, but no harm done.”
Jack opened his eyes and saw a blood-soaked Dave wiping his blade clean on a bloody rag. “They jumped us,” Jack said, “stole our weapons.”
Dave wagged his finger. “I told ya they would, didn't I?”
“You gonna let us out?”
“Of course. We're friends.” Dave fished through the guard's pockets and pulled out a key. He unlocked the cell door and opened it. He chucked the key at one of his mates. “Open the others, will ya?” Dave drew his dagger and cut Jack's bonds.
Jack massaged his sore wrists. “Thanks. We owe ya.”
Dave sheathed his dagger in his belt. “Oh, I'm sure ya'll find a way to repay us, but no rush.” He said to his mates, “Search the town for our friends' weapons and bring them here.”
Dave's mates ran off to do Dave's bidding.
Dave grinned at Jack. “Didn't I say ya should have just waited for us to take the town?”
Jack rolled his sore neck and shoulders. “You did. Are you really going to burn it down?”
“It's burning as we speak.”
Jack frowned. “Shame. I kinda liked this town, despite the mugging.”
“What's to like?” Dave asked. “All these pretentious merchants and bankers thumbing their noses at ya like they're high and mighty. And all that wealth plundered from the hardworking folk of Ireland, all of it stolen, even the land. And what do they spend their plundered wealth on? Queer fashion from foreign lands and bygone ages. I say burn it all. We don't need this town or the parasites that inhabit it.”
Dave's rage-filled rant and his bloody demeanour scared Jack a little. “Wouldn't want to get on your bad side.”
“Oh, ya don't have nothing to worry about. I like ya. And ya'll be happy to hear we saved a boat for ya. Even left the crew alive for ransoming. Merchant families pay a lot of money to get their loved ones back.”
“Thanks for everything.” Jack couldn't wait to get away from this bloodthirsty raider.
“I think I saw yar things in the storeroom outside. Why don't ya go and retrieve yar things? I'll be around, re-appropriating some of the, uh, pigs they took from us.” With that, Dave ran back upstairs, hollering like a baboon.
Jack, Erwin and Derek left the dungeon and raided the storerooms in the hall outside. They found their backpacks and the metal case containing their laser cutters. Erwin and Derek carried the case upstairs to the main hall, and Jack followed.
The floor up here was slippery with blood. The household servants, both men and women, had been cut down, savagely. Their guts hung out of their bellies, their faces slashed, tongues cut out and limbs chopped off. Some of the women died on their stomachs, naked from the waist down, their bare skin bruised and lacerated around their buttocks and thighs.
With shaking hands, Jack fumbled with the intricate locking mechanism on his collar and yanked off his helmet. He doubled over and wretched on the floor. When he inhaled, he caught a deep whiff of the rotten smell of carnage. Half-coughing and half-choking, he stumbled upstairs, hoping to get away from the sight and the smells.
He found an empty room and sat down on the bed. His hands were still shaking, his heart raced, and he was parched.
Derek knocked on the open door. “You okay, Jack?”
“Water,” Jack rasped.
Derek found a pitcher on one of the tables. He took an electric filter out of his bag, screwed it to a clear plastic bottle and poured the content of the pitcher through the filter. He detached the now full bottle and handed it to Jack.
Jack took the bottle and gulped down the purified water. He swallowed his last gulp and handed the half-full bottle back to Derek. Derek took the bottle and downed the rest of its content.
“They're savages,” Jack whispered. “Sooner or later, we'll need to recruit allies to help fight Gabriella, and these people are what we have to work with?”
Derek went over to refill the bottle. “We'll keep looking. There's gotta be good people somewhere on this godforsaken planet.”
Jack snorted. “We thought it would be paradise. We thought we could simply colonize a quiet piece of real estate and coexist peacefully with the natives. Vicenta was right. Should've just stayed with her on Mars. We had a happy life. And she's hot. Damn, I miss her.”
“Come on, Jack. We couldn't have known about Gabriella. And we knew what we were getting into with these natives. We've seen the video footage of them waging war.”
“And that's why we picked Iceland. Empty island. Remote. Intact infrastructure. We weren't supposed to make contact with them. Not yet.”
“They came to us.”
“And we scorched them. Now we might have to recruit them to fight our war. What a mess this expedition has turned into.”
“Do you regret it?”
Jack bit his lips as he considered his answer. “This was my father's dream. It was my dream. The two of us adventuring together. Just like old times.” He teared up. “Now he's dead. And my mom, sister, and little brother are trapped aboard a spaceship in orbit around the moon with no fuel. Meanwhile, we're stuck here, surrounded by fire and carnage, with no way back home. We can't get even get a boat off this damn island.”
“I'll take that as a 'yes'?”
“In hindsight, but I want to make this work. I owe it to my father. He sacrificed too much to get us here.”
“You did too, Jack. We all did.”
“What about you? Do you regret coming?”
Derek sighed and sat down next to Jack. “I don't regret dreaming of a better world. I don't regret wanting to raise my future family on a planet where there is life, air, and free flowing water. We'll get through this, Jack. We'll have our paradise in the end.”
“Heh. You sound like my dad.”
“Don't tell Amy that. She hates it when people make that comparison.”
Jack chuckled. “When she and Ray and Mom wake up, we're gonna have this world cleaned up. No more Gabriella. No more clone soldiers. No more savages.”
“Jesus. You're talking about an ethnic cleansing?” Derek asked with an ironic laugh.
“No. We're gonna beat the bad guys, and then we're gonna civilize the natives whether they like it or not.”
“Oh, and we're so civilized?”
Images of roasted corpses flitted through Jack's mind, and he cringed. “Maybe not. I dunno. It's all so complicated.” The horrors of what he had just seen came back to him, and he gritted his teeth. “At least we're trying. These Murphy's – they're having fun burning, killing, raping. We are better. No doubt about that.”
“I hear ya. And I agree. I'm not gonna let Amy see any of this. She deserves better. This world needs to be cleaned up before we can allow our women and children to set foot here.”
“Could be a while before we see our families again,” Jack said.
“I know. I miss her so much. Wish I could see her right now. With the way things are going, I'm scared I won't live to see the day of our wedding.”
“I ain't gonna let nothin' happen to you, Derek. My sister would kill me otherwise.”
Derek chortled. “Likewise, Jack. Although, she might end up murdering us both because of your father. I'm sorry, Jack. I wish I coulda – shoulda done something as it was happening, instead of just kneeling there like a defeated man waitin' my turn. You acted, Jack. You fought back and defied her.”
“We all did.”
“You acted first. Stood up. Punched that robotic executioner square in its titanium jaw. Showed the rest of us how cowardly we were.”
“Ah, it didn't make a difference.”
“No. It did. It inspired me. All of us. Acts of courage are needed to uplift the spirit, and you showed courage that day.”
“Thanks, Derek. I needed to hear that.”
Erwin barged into the room, Big Bertha in his right hand, a Solokov in his left hand, his Dapao Shredder slung over his left shoulder, and another Solokov slung over his right shoulder. “Catch.” He tossed the Solokov in his hand to Jack, and the other Solokov to Derek.
Jack checked the magazine. It was empty. He pulled another magazine out of his bag and loaded it into his rifle. He checked the power status. The charge was still at 93%.
Somebody knocked on the door. It was Dave. He walked into the room with a cheeky smile on his face. “All set to go, then? I hope ya didn't mind the mess we left in the hall. The men can be such pigs.”
Jack stood up, put on his helmet and glared at Dave. “Get us out of here.”
Dave led them out the door. “I know ya're not really from China, by the way.”
Jack snorted. “What gave it away?”
Dave walked down the stairs. “There have been strange sightings for the past several years. Meteors falling from the sky. Animals behaving strangely. And not just in Ireland. Travellers who have been around the world tell us people all over are saying the same thing: the gods have returned.”
“We're not gods,” Derek said as he and Erwin bent down to pick up the metal case containing their laser cutters.
“No. Ya're not,” Dave said, “but ya're not from this world either.”
“We're from Mars,” Jack freely admitted, now that the cat was out of the bag.
Dave led them out the front door. Outside, Jack could hear the cries of men, women and children. Fires raged across a town that once seemed so vibrant with life and commerce.
“When I was a boy,” Dave said, “me nan told me about other worlds, worlds where the gods have gone to battle with dragons.”
They approached a garage that had been converted to a stable. Captain Tobias had stowed the ATVs here. Jack and his companions mounted their ATVs.
Dave mounted his black horse. “I never believed in gods.” He leaned towards Jack and whispered conspiratorially, “I believe we've simply forgotten who we were. But ya haven't.”
“You've hit the nail on the head,” Jack said.
“Ya can help us remember who we were?”
Jack felt moved by Dave's childlike request. “When our ancestors left this world,” he quietly answered, “they brought with them the world's history, culture, art, technology – anything and everything they could get their hands on before it was wiped clean by the Eden Directorate.”
Dave's eyes caught the light of the distant fires. “Our people. The Irish. We were a proud nation once?”
Jack nodded. “Every nation before the rise of Eden had its proud moments and its not so proud moments.”
“It is hard to remember the age before Eden,” Dave said. “I hear so many stories that can't all be true. But ya people know which are true and which are false. I wonder if ya know how lucky ya're.”
Jack felt kinda sorry for this ignorant savage who was trying desperately to reconnect with his lost history. “You know, Dave, before Eden, Ireland was a country that had come out of a difficult century, hell, a difficult millennium. They suffered terrible famines. Massive depopulation. Wars. Political and religious strife. But eventually, it all got better. The entire island lived in peace with itself and its neighbours. It became prosperous.” Jack held his right thumb and index finger close together. “But only for a short time.”
Dave tilted his head questioningly.
Jack shrugged. “Then the world fell apart, and the world's peoples, in their desperation, turned to the Eden Directorate.”
Dave stared into the distance, seemingly lost in his thoughts. He shook himself, and his cheeky smile was back. “Well, I wouldn't want to keep ya. If ya ever come by Ireland again, just look for wherever the big army is. I'll be probably be there. We'll talk again about... remembering.” He spurred his horse and trotted down the road. “Now follow me to yar boat.”
Link to table of content:
https://www.minds.com/ME2007Vigil/blog/red-eden-sons-of-mars-table-of-content-967907646284259328
Red Eden: Sons of Mars is the sequel to my first book, Red Eden: Homeworld Bound. To catch up on this series, please click the following link, which will re-direct you to the table of content:
https://www.minds.com/ME2007Vigil/blog/red-eden-homeworld-bound-table-of-content-913570321625583616
You can purchase the full novel on Amazon at this link: