One Day on Mars

a drop tank in bot-mode lumbering cautiously toward them. The shots hit the right ankle joint, toppling the mecha forward onto the battlefield between them and a small group of approaching Seppy ground troops. The flailing mecha formed a nice barricade. Washington dropped back below the fountain wall.

'Right back at you sir!' Clay took his turn taking shots. Forty-millimeter cannon fire from the enemy mecha spitanged against the statue, flinging hot metal against the sergeant's armored shoulder. A piece of shrapnel penetrated the armor and seared its way through the seal layer and into the flesh of his shoulder. 'Shit!' he grunted in agony as he fired fifty or so rounds off by accident into the smoke and dust and approaching enemy troops.

'You all right, Sarge?'

'Just a flesh wound, I hope. Burns like goddamned hell.' He rubbed at the hole in his armored shoulder and looked at the seal layer as it healed itself over the hole in his arm.

'Any ideas, Sarge?'

'Well, lieutenant, other than dying, I'm fresh out.' The sergeant leaned back against the wall of the fountain and panted for breath a few times.

'I was afraid of that. I wonder if they'd let us surrender?' The second lieutenant cracked a somber grimacing smile and rose to fire a few more rounds until his HVAR weapon clicked and displayed the out-of-ammo warning on his visor. 'Shit, I'm out!'

Sergeant Jackson held his railgun barrel up over the fountain wall and peered at the visor display for a target. There were plenty. The QM tracking and sighting system showed forty-three known targets while his ammo depository displayed one hundred and seven rounds left. He aimed as best he could from behind the wall at the nearest mass of ground troops hammering away at them with railgun fire and depressed the trigger. The Seppy troops were moving too fast for an over-the-head shot to be useful as a pinpoint shot, but as cover fire it slowed the ground troop advance some—if a second or two could be counted as some.

A whining screech and then an explosion a few tens of meters on the enemy side of the fountain sent shrapnel flinging into the already black smoke-filled part of the city. Brilliant flashes of mecha cannon fire and directed energy weapons lit up the smoky battlescape of the largest driving circle in the solar system. The whirling winds caused by the gaping hole in the dome continued to whip the smoke and debris into small dust devils and gustnados. They were illuminated by bright orange and red flashes from mecha exploding. Several more whining screeches followed with explosions and then forty-millimeter cannon fire picked up continuously. The spitanging of HVAR rounds on the fountain and statue ceased but the spitap spitap spitap of HVAR rounds being fired only increased flinging shrapnel buzzing around the other side of the fountain like many angry bees.

Lieutenant Colonel 'Burner' Masterson ran his configurable FM-12 strike mecha at full trot in bot-mode onto the north side of Dome Circle and pierced through the whirling smoke clouds into the opening firing anti-mecha missiles into three Seppy drop tanks and then fired his jump thrusters launching the sleek Mars red humanoid-formed fighter mecha into a full forward flip while multiple beams pulsed from the main directed energy gun in the left hand of the FM-12. The mecha looked like a giant robot with an armored cockpit in its upper mid torso through where a head should be, flanked on either shoulder with swiveling forty-millimeter HVAR cannons.

'Fox three!' Multiple mecha-to-mecha missile tubes stacked along the torso of the lethal vehicle left faint blue and purple ionization trails as the missiles scattered from the FM-12 seeking Seppy targets to kill.

'Whew!' Masterson grunted to offset the g-loading on his lower extremities. The heads-up display on the canopy was lit up with multiple targets having locked on to him and his warning klaxons and the 'Bitching Betty' were ringing loud in his ears. 'Now come get me! Guns 1, Guns 2!' He let out a howl and released multiple bursts from the shoulder mounted cannons and several DEG bursts.

As the Seppy Orcus drop tanks focused on the lieutenant colonel, the remaining twenty-three FM-12s of Cardiff's Killers brought death from the sky, from behind buildings, within the whirling smoke debris clouds, and one even tore upward through an overpass. The surprise of two dozen American Marine strike fighting mechas threw the more numerous Separatist drop tanks into a state of confusion.

At first they scattered aimlessly, like mice skittering for cover, with no clear plan or forethought into where that cover might be. After the initial shock of the surprise attack dulled, the veteran Seppy mecha pilots began to fight back with some effectiveness. But their numbers had dwindled to even or less with the Americans. And the Americans were moving swiftly and deadly. Cardiff's Killers were doing what they did best—kill.

'LT? Sarge? Can you make a run south?' Corporal Shelly announced over the QM. 'The mechaheads are covering the north and me and Kootie are bouncing to ya!'

'Oorah! Shelly!' Sergeant Jackson called back as he brought his city view back to the forefront of his visor. There were the blue dots for Shelly and Kudaf but not a sign of the FM-12s or the Seppy Orcus drop tanks he could see with his own eyes. No time to think about that, he thought. We ain't gonna die today damnit!

Oorah! his AIC Susan replied.

'Shelly, we got you. Sarge and I are bouncing south for better cover. We're out of ammo you gotta give us some cover.' Washington tried to bear-crawl away from the fountain as best he could with a half-meter-long hunk of steel sticking out of his left leg. The pain resurfacing from each movement forced him to grit his teeth and focus. He knew he had to focus on surviving and getting the hell out of there.

Tammie! Where do we need to go? We need a retreat route now! Thomas asked his AIC.

Here sir! The southbound interstate overpass gives you the best cover! She highlighted the escape path on the map in his head. She then transferred the same data to the sergeant's AIC.

'Shelly, Kudaf, here is our rendezvous point!' He relayed the data to them through the QM. 'Let's bounce, Sergeant!' He stood quickly and released the jumper field on his boots, flinging him twenty meters southward. The jarring motion of the jumping rushed up through his bum leg and sent sharp needles of pain piercing through him. The pain medication was beginning to wear down. He needed medical attention. The second lieutenant gritted his teeth and dreaded the next landing and bounce. He adjusted his stride so that most of the impact would be taken by his right leg instead.

'LT, hang on to my shoulder.' Sergeant Jackson saw the second lieutenant shudder on his first bounce and thought he was going to collapse, but the tough young officer pushed through the pain. Jackson caught him by the second bounce and grabbed his left arm. The two men bounced as fast and far south as they could manage. Fortunately, the Seppies were otherwise preoccupied.

It had taken nearly thirty minutes for Alexander and his band of misfit refugees to backtrack through the main dome to the nearest downward accessing elevator without being spotted by the Separatists who had overrun Mons City. There they had taken the elevator down three levels to a maintenance travel shaft where they took a small electric buggy through all the way to the