War For Mars- Aethon's Reign: A Military Sci-Fi Series (Book 3), page 1
War For Mars
Aethon’s Reign
War For Mars Series
Book 3
Olin Lester
Copyright © 2023 by Olin Lester
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
The War For Mars is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is entirely coincidental.
Cover design and illustration by © Tom Edwards TomEdwardsDesign.com
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Glossery
AI- Artificial Intelligence
HUD- Heads up display
GWO- Global World Order
SD- Suicide Drone
SSG- Staff Sergeant
SGT- Sergeant
LZ- Landing Zone
RP- Rally Point
MRE- Meal Ready to Eat
QRF- Quick Reaction Force
MSG- Master Sergeant
AFI- Allied Federation Intelligence
AF- Allied Federation
FTL- Faster Than Light
HR- Heart Rate
LTC- Legion Cutter Tiberius
CO- Commanding Officer
AGL- Air to Ground Level
RDF- Roon Defense Force
RDX- Research Department Explosive
GEMC- Grim Eternals Medical Course
IG- Imperial Guild
SITREP- Situational Report
Dedication
To my girls! May everyday be a dream…
Contents
1. The War Has Begun
2. Doom
3. The Beginning of the End
4. Master Sergeant David Aethon
5. The Ask
6. Allied Federation Freighter Inception
7. Droids
8. The Task
9. The Fight
10. Vengeance
11. A New Enemy
12. FTL Problems
13. A New Plan
14. The Plateau
15. Jack’s Alley
16. Alhoon
17. The Game
18. The Word
19. For Wardy
20. Near Death
21. Headed for Vista-VI, Again
22. Southern Ice-fields
23. The Imperial Guild
24. The Meeting
25. The Town and The Vote
26. The Decision
27. Light the Fire
28. Air and Land
29. The Turn
30. The Second Wave
31. Amy Aethon
32. Escape and Evade
33. Breaching the Planet
34. We’re Back
35. Options
36. Second Wave Part 2
37. A Long Shot
38. The Mars Treaty Shield
39. Pain and Death
40. Aethon’s Revenge
41. Slaves and The Empress
42. Till Death
43. It’s Never Over Until It’s Over
44. Bittersweet
Epilogue
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Chapter 1
The War Has Begun
[Galactic World Order Protected Zone
Merchant Security Spaceport Entry 3
Above Mars’ Northern Pole]
A blue light flashed from one of hundreds of satellites spanning the circumference of Mars. Each one linked together, and they became known as the Mars Treaty Shield—which was established after the first War for Mars. They orbited in a fashion with digital encryption that allowed a blue electrostatic shield to engulf the planet. This created a barrier, leaving only four guarded, circular spaceports to enter the planet. Those ports were manned by the Mars Defense Forces, each ship assigned a location for protection.
Both the Imperial Guild and the Allied Federation had patrolled all sectors of the Galactic World Order’s area of responsibly within colonized space ever since humans became multi-planetary. After the first War for Mars, the GWO established the need for a Mars Defense Force, and since then, the Allied Federation, as well as the Imperial Guild, had trained and helped establish the Mars Defense Force to be the first line of defense if and when another attack on Mars came.
“Captain, sensors are offline in quadrant three,” Lieutenant Blackford, the spaceport’s XO, explained as he moved toward the chief. One at a time, sensor alarms began to blink red, and then all at once, the early warning system lost power and the holo-tablet went black.
“The cold of space is a bitch. Launch the engineering drones out to quadrant three. These things are daisy chained but shouldn’t go black like that,” Captain Newell ordered. This was his first billet after the merchant day incident, and he felt like it was more of a punishment rather than a vested reward for his actions. “And don’t forget to notate it in the shift log.”
“Roger that, sir,” Lieutenant Blackford replied as he launched the drones. He was just glad the captain had stopped mentioning the blockade event from a few days ago.
“Coffee?” the captain asked. “Anyone brew a pot yet?”
No one answered.
“I guess I’ll make us one,” he uttered across the command center as he pushed away from his chair. Captain Newell shuffled his boots across the carpet, touched the metal doorframe as the glass door slid into the wall, and shivered as the electrostatic shocked him. The door closed, and he turned into the break room. It was too early in the morning to interact with other humans without first having his coffee, but the sensor malfunctions were important enough to wake him.
Steam hissed through the machine as liquid heaven dripped into the station’s coffee pot. The captain had commanded the spaceport for a few months, and more than anything else, he felt as if his routine consisted of early morning wake-ups, not enough coffee, and dealing with merchant ship clearances to enter Mars. That was aside from personnel issues that never seemed to end. He always thought there was something about space that seeped sadness into his sailors’ souls.
The first sip of morning coffee was always his favorite, unless any number of reasons caused an interruption to sour his mood. He stood alone, the break room silent, except for the hiss of the coffee finishing its brew. He poured his cup and leaned against the counter as he dropped a single ice cube into the blackness. He wanted to smile, but his eyes were still heavy with sleep as he took his first sip. Then he felt his wrist computer vibrate.
A smile finally cracked Captain Newell’s face as he noticed the incoming video call was from his daughter. He tapped his wrist. “Well, good morning, my love. Why are you up so early?” The magic of children seemed to dramatically improve his mood.
“Papa, are there any bad aliens?”
“Oh, baby, did you have another bad dream? I’ll be down and check on you as soon as I can. Try and go back to sleep.”
“But, Papa, I miss you. I need you to come sleep with me. Can you come home now?”
Captain Newell’s stomach sank as he put his coffee on the counter. “Baby, I’ll be on today’s first shuttle dropping to the surface. I promise you, no bad aliens will get ya. It was just a bad dream. That’s all. Do you remember what I’ve told you about dreams?”
“They’re all in my head?”
“That’s right. They can’t hurt you because they’re all just a figment of your imagination as you sleep.”
“I love you, Papa. Come home soon—”
Captain Newell’s screen turned black. The connection was lost, but typically a blue hue would have outlined the screen when that happened. Cosmic interference usually was the cause, but this time his screen instantly blacked out, as if the battery had died. Strange, all the wrist computers have quantum batteries with a hundred-year life span.
The spaceport suddenly lurched, tossing Captain Newell across the break room as his coffee cup fell to the floor. Lights flickered with electrical surges as an alarm began to bleed over the spaceport’s intercom. “Collision alert, all personnel report to their stations. Collision alert, all personnel report to their stations. This is not a drill,” a prerecorded voice announced on loop.
The captain picked himself up and ran back to the command center as additional alarms sounded.
“XO, report!” Newell yelled as he stepped in front of the row of command holo-screens. “What the hell is going on?” Even as his words left his mouth, the captain could see an armada of Legion ships spreading into an attack formation as the spaceport’s defenses launched.
Railguns rotated outward from within their storage pods and lit the black of space with a constant barrage of red vapor trails as Legion Darkfighters could be seen swarming out from the belly of an enemy destroyer.
Captain Newell quickly assessed the situation, his eyes widened as his hands suddenly became clammy. Is this really happening? His mind shook out the initial stress as he pulled out the key hanging on a chain from around his neck. The metal resonated between his fing
A small red flashing menu appeared on the screen in front of the captain, and he pressed the emergency tab. The screen changed from red to a steady green indicating the captain had indeed sent a distress code across the known galaxy to every Imperial Guild ship, every Allied Federation and GWO ship, but most importantly it sent a distress call to the Mars Defense Force ground troops that the Merchant Security Spaceport 3 was under attack.
The distress call was step one in the spaceport protocols, but before he could order step two, Captain Newell noticed distress calls were also being sent from the other three spaceports. It’s a full-scale invasion. Time seemingly slowed as the captain realized the Legion was attacking Mars with everything they had. The enemy was at the gates invading Mars. And in that instant, he knew he was about to break the promise of returning home to his daughter.
Chapter 2
Doom
[Mars Mining Colony 1
Northern Hemisphere
Mars]
Three atmosphere processers towered over the Mars mining colony, one at each apex of its figurative triangle that created the colony’s border. The mine was in the center of the colony, tens of miles from each processor, with human habitats nestled within close-knit rows. The mine had been operational for decades, and when the first War for Mars ended, the Galactic World Order re-opened it while also establishing the Mars Defense Force to protect it and its colonials.
The mine was the driving force behind the area’s economy as it was only one of three known mines to produce Arkadium. And the sole reason atmosphere processors littered the landscape long enough to terraform the planet to a point of breathable air and the beginning of self-sustainable farming.
Until the Legion the came back.
A miner lifted his head as he heard the thrusters of a Legion dropship push through the atmosphere. His head tilted as dirt and sweat riddled his face. “What in the world is that?” he said. Then all hell broke loose.
Alarms sounded from an adjacent tower as autonomous railguns lit the sky, tracking the dropship as it aggressively maneuvered. Red shaft countermeasures were jettisoned as the dropship began to take accurate fire. Its wings ate alive by tritium rounds until it nosed over and fell from the sky, burning into the ground, close to one of the atmosphere processors.
That was when the minor’s focus shifted out into what the man could see of space above the northern processor. Red-and-green vapor trails caught his eye, and he knew a battle was active near the spaceport. Then his attention shifted to the guard tower where he noticed an MDF soldier looking though a telescope and pointing toward the sky.
The man turned to run but was cut down by a Darkfighter dropping in fast on a gun run, strafing the colony habitats.
Alarms sounded as more railguns lit the sky as the swarm of Legion Darkfighters, bombers, and dropships nearly blotted out the sky. Miners exited the mine by the dozens as bombs dropped around the colony outskirts.
Darkfighters lined up, almost unabated, killing the first two Mars Defense Force Starfighters as they engaged a swarm of Legion ships. They had been on a routine security mission when all at once a flood of Legion warships barreled through the planetary entry point.
The chaos, fire, and death were painfully evident that the orbiting Merchant Security Spaceport-3 had been compromised, and there was no longer a secure planetary entry point. The colony was under attack, but what the colonists were blind to was the fact that all four planetary entry ports were under siege, and it was only a matter of time before death swept the compound.
A ramp lowered from the first Legion dropship to set down on the planet, and a white mist flooded from inside as Empress Enigma Wright stepped down the alloy platform. With her brightly lit katana in hand, she smiled and made her way onto the planet. The blade was a glimmering red of electrical activity outlining the blade, and she spun it in her hand as she walked.
Red Star troopers followed close behind the empress as they carried plasma rifles and began firing on the fleeing civilians. A nasty sound of splattered blood and bodies impacting the ground echoed off a nearby habitat as the dropship lifted off to go retrieve another load of enemy troops.
The empress moved with a purpose as an approaching Darkfighter sailed a missile into a distant guard tower while other fighters destroyed the last of the ground defense railguns.
“Secure the mine entrance. No one goes in and no one comes out,” Empress Wright explained as she slid her blade into a habitat door. The blade sizzled for a fraction of a second as it sheared the lock, and she kicked it open.
A whoosh of air exited as Red Star troopers entered the building. The empress followed close behind, ducking her head as she held her katana tight. Troopers with plasma rifles and pistols exchanged fire with a pair of MDF soldiers as they made their way to the command center where they found a skeleton crew with gaping jaws.
“Kill that one.” The empress pointed toward an older, white-haired female dressed in an MDF uniform. Then she stepped in front of the most decorated officer in the room.
A Red Star withdrew his plasma pistol and quickly dispatched the female soldier.
“Look at me. I will only say this once. If you don’t want to end up like her”—the empress pointed to the newly dead female officer bleeding on the floor—“then you will do as I say, when I say, and in the exact manner as how I say. Do you understand me, human?” she said, staring down on the older man.
He was shaken, but his face remained stoic as the female’s blood pooled by his feet. His eyes were full of hatred, yet his heart beat calmly. In his many years, the man had seen war come and go. Death had never caused him grief, but pure, unadulterated hatred was growing within his soul. Without as much as a whimper, the commanding officer nodded, then raised his brow as he stepped back and took a seat next to his command desk.
Across the room, a brown dog with a spot of white painted down his chest began to growl. The empress ignored the dog but stayed focused on the officer.
“My name is Commander J. Mathis, and that in the corner is seventy-five pounds of pissed-off energy. Now, I’ve already told you that I’ll do as you ask, but if you fuck around with my dog, you’ll all find out—”
“Find out what?” a trooper asked.
“Fuck around and find out,” Commander Mathis replied. The look on his face could have cut glass.
“Commander J. Mathis, that’s an intriguing name. Let me guess, you’re named after a war fighter somewhere along your human heritage tree of life. Is that about, right?” the empress questioned.
The commander took a second and cut his eyes at the troopers in the room, counting five, but could hear more in adjacent rooms as well as outside the command center’s window. He flicked his eyes quickly to the burning chaos playing out across his wall-mounted holo-screens and knew he and his people were massively outnumbered. He knew death was coming and could smell it on the intruder’s breath.
“You’re much too slow in answering. Kill—”
He stood, interrupting the empress. “My lineage is that of men and women who have fought across this great galaxy in the search of freedom and free people. Now, you mentioned you needed something. Well, how can I help you?” Commander Mathis blurted out as he stood firm.
