One Day on Mars

'Put the power pack there, honey.' Sehera demonstrated for her daughter how to snap the vacuum energy power supply into the suit pack. She kissed her daughter on the cheek, then slid the environment suit over her head, twisting the seal ring tight.

'Don't close the faceshield down unless you need it. No need to waste our power and air if the dome doesn't crack.' The Mons Adventures store manager, a young man in his early twenties, twisted his bright red helmet on and continued to instruct the few tourists and passersby who had the presence of mind to find a place that sold or rented environment suits.

'Makes sense.' Alexander smiled reassuringly at his daughter and motioned to her how to release the faceshield hinge if she needed to. Sehera on the other hand needed no instruction. She had been in and out of environment suits most of her life.

'Anybody know what's going on?' one of the tourists asked. Obviously he was from Earth and had never been in a suit. A short fat man was having trouble sealing the life support ring.

'Yeah, the supercarrier blew up and crashed into the dome, duh,' Deanna answered. Rod looked up from helping one of the others with their e-suit functions and burst out with laughter at her response.

'Ask a stupid question . . . ' the other young man that worked there, Vincent, added.

'Be nice, dear,' her mother scolded her. Deanna stuck her tongue out at the man.

Abigail, any info available? Senator Moore thought to his staffer.

The best source of news seems to be, well, the news, sir. The long-range wireless is being jammed. I do have a connection to the Marines that were dispatched to get us.

Well?

Their transport was shot down over the south dome and they are taking heavy casualties. And even worse, sir, they are cut off from us.

Casualties! From what?

This appears to be an attack, Senator. There is a ground force overrunning the city and parts of the naval base It is only a matter of time before they enter the main dome, Abigail informed Alexander.

'Hey, listen.' Senator Moore got the young shop manager, Reyez's, attention. 'Can you put the holo or a screen on MNN?'

'Of course. I don't know why I didn't think of that.' The Mons Adventures manager looked up from adjustments to one of the environment suits and the wall monitors flipped to the Mars News Network, MNN. Then Reyez and the other two employees of the shop, Rod and Vince, went back to adjusting the suits of the few tourists that had at least been smart enough to find a place that had suits. There was just no telling how many tourists had gotten lost in the main dome and never found the leak shelter or a place with suits. No telling how many casualties there would be if the big dome cracked a seal.

Alexander held his wife's and daughter's hands and pulled them closer to the video monitors. The MNN correspondent was on the north side of the dome near the shelter. The scene behind her was of an overcrowded room with too few seats. The occasional local with an environment suit stood out in the crowd of tourists.

'. . . the main dome is still holding as far as we can tell. A few minutes ago the U.S.S Winston Churchill, a Navy supercarrier, exploded in midair and then crashed through the skyline of southern portions of Olympus Mons City, destroying parts of the lower and smaller domes. We have no idea of the massive damage that must have been caused and are not certain of the casualties. The scene here is currently of shock and survival. We can only hope the leak shelters hold since the majority of the people here do not have environment suits. Shennan, is there any word as to what is going on?' The image shifted back to the MNN anchor desk and Shennan Haggarty.

'Right now, Amanda, we know very little. However, we do have some footage of the attack. That's right, attack. Mons City is under a full-scale attack from ground troops with aerial support. The data we have right now is still very sketchy, but it appears as if a cargo and waste disposal transport ship appeared out of hyperspace in orbit above Mons and dropped a full contingent of mechanized drop tanks, infantry, and fighter support. The ship then completed a suicide run at the naval blockade in orbit. It was engaged by the fleet but it appears to have self- destructed, destroying several ships along with it and damaging many others. These events seem to have coincided with the explosion of the Churchill. Right now we can only assume sabotage is what caused it to explode. Just a moment . . . I'm told we have audio from Gail Fehrer in the south dome . . . can we go to that?'

'This is Gail Fehrer. I'm in the south dome of the Olympus Mons skyline. The dome has a massive hole in it the size of several skyscrapers. There are giant girders from the geodesic ribs hanging from the gaping hole. Oh my God, there are skyscrapers collapsing along the path of the crashed ship and explosions going off in the distance. There must be thousands killed or wounded. Once again, just a few moments ago the supercarrier U.S.S Winston Churchill crashed here, destroying most of the southern borough of the city. Almost immediately following that several of what appear to be Separatist mechanized troop carriers dropped from the sky and then a squadron of enemy fighter-bombers plowed through leaving behind death and destruction. It looks as if the bombers may also have taken out portions of the eastern skyline as well, before they met any resistance from the Navy.'

'Gail, can you see any of our troops anywhere?' Shennan asked.

'Shennan, I just saw a group of Martian Marines pass through toward the fairgrounds. One of the soldiers told us that they were heavily outnumbered and hoped their superior training and firepower would allow them to hold off the attack until the Martian 34th Mecha Unit arrived.'

'Gail, can you give us a description of the scene and mood there?' the anchorman asked.

'Yes, Shennan. There are huge amounts of dust clouds and smoke all around us and there is rubble everywhere. There is the distinct crack of railgun fire and missile detonations in the background. The Marines just went towards what appears to be the most devastated part of the city and where there are still flames and explosions from secondary effects of the crash sounding in the distance. My guess is that there is where the first conflicts are . . . '

After more than an hour of waiting in the adventure store and feeling the large vibrations of exterior explosions outside the main dome, the survivors were more than just panicked. Many of the two dozen survivors who gathered and waited in the adventure store had AICs that were connected to the Internet, but what they found in terms of news was not very reassuring. MNN and local wireless seemed to be the only functioning communications. And the footage on MNN had been looped through so many times that it was getting old hearing the news analysts trying to think of new things to say about it. All other