One Day on Mars

blood oozed out around the blade. She then repeated the process, this time slightly to the right of the previous bloody stab wound. Then she yanked the blade upward fairly hard and with a twist, causing bloody gray matter and pale white and pink skull bone fragments to crack free and spring upward being held together only by hair and skin. Joanie slid her finger into the man's brainpan just behind his left ear and fished around for a second.

'There it is.' She pulled out a small orange and bloody red plastic device about the size and shape of a sunflower seed in its shell.

She did it, Senator. We have to go, now. They are coming down alternative elevators and stairwells. Here and here. Abigail showed him on a three-dimensional city map in his mind. I'll let you know when I get the IFF transfer.

'Great work, Joanie.' Moore took the implant from her.

'You know you have to smash that thing or they can track us?'

'I'm counting on that . . . and a few other things. We have to get out of here now,' he said as he listened to the Seppy open channel. The Seppies were missing their two buddies and were sending someone else to look for them. The dead Seppy's AICs could have alerted others to their presence, as Abigail couldn't be sure if her jamming attempts had worked or not. At least now they had two rifles, a handful of ordnance, and access to the enemy communications channel. And soon, hopefully very soon, they would have the enemy IFF.

'Look, Daddy.' Deanna tugged at her father's arm pointing to a line of small holes in the drywall down the hallway.

Moore knelt beside his daughter. 'What is it, baby?'

'Mommy and I were right here.' Deanna pulled her father around the corner at the hallway crossing and crawled down onto the floor on all fours as best she could in the child-sized e-suit. 'See?'

Alexander did see. Not only was his daughter smart, but she was lucky. The HVAR rounds that had gone off in a random spray during his scuffle with the Seppy soldiers had penetrated the wall in the main hallway and continued right on through the crossing hallway just above where Deanna and Sehera had been hiding. Reyez and Joanie had been on the other side of the hallway, but Moore's family had been right in the line of fire and very lucky and he had been very stupid.

'Jesus!' Alexander and Sehera both grabbed their daughter and began running their hands over her suit looking for puncture wounds. There were none. 'Are you okay, sweetheart? You're okay, right?' Alexander gulped hard. 'Sehera, you sure you're not hit?'

Abigail ran a quick vitals sweep with her QM sensors. They are unharmed, Senator.

Shit, that was so stupid of me. We have got to get them out of here.

'Alexander.' Sehera looked at her husband sternly. 'We cannot do that again.'

'I know. I'm so sorry, dear. We have to get out of here.'

'Look, I hate to break this up and all,' Joanie interrupted. 'But we should keep moving. Everybody is all right here, yes?' She nodded knowingly at Moore.

'Right, let's get moving.'

Lieutenant Commander Jack Boland wiped the sweat off of his face and set his helmet on the seat of his Ares fighter. For some reason the squadron had been recalled and the fighters were zipping in through the braking field and slamming into the landing deck as fast as they could ingress.

'What the hell, Chief? I thought we were doing a second wave deep into the mountains past Elysium.' He returned the salute to the maintenance chief climbing the ladder on the other side of the fighter and then stepped down another rung of his own ladder. Jack pulled the seal ring on his gloves and removed them with a pop swoosh. He tossed them beside his helmet as an afterthought.

'Yes, sir. It appears that the Madira and most of the fleet has been called to the Tharsis Mons region. Mons City has been overrun by a large invasion force and we are pulling out to there.'

'No shit?' Jack couldn't believe what he was hearing. Mons City under attack? Those Seppy bastards have got some kind of balls.

I agree, sir, his AIC Candis commented.

'Well, pull that backseat hardware out of my fighter and reload it with standard gear. I suspect I'll be going back into the mix when we get there along with the rest of the Gods of War.' Jack nodded to the chief. 'Meantime, I'm gonna get some chow.'

'Yes sir! I'd avoid the meatloaf sir. The stuff gave Hull Technician Third Class Joe Buckley the worst case of the shits I ever saw. He literally almost shit himself to death. Doc says he's gonna make it though.' He laughed but his warning was serious. After all, it was the chief's job to make sure his pilots and their gear were always running top-notch and ship shape. He had to do his part in taking care of the men. Sure the CAG would say the pilots were his men, and the captain of the Madira would say they were his, but the chief knew different. He looked out for his men.

'Thanks, Chief. Has double zero reported in yet?' Boland asked.

'You haven't heard?' The chief turned three shades of pale.

'Heard what?' Jack stood still. He'd seen that look on the chief's face before. Even through the smut, oil, and other grime covering the chief's orange coveralls from head to toe he could tell the chief was hurting inside.

'Lieutenant Commander Tyler was shot down south of Elysium about fifteen minutes ago. She and her AIC were lost.' The chief looked at his boots for a brief moment.

'Shit!'

'Yes sir. Seppy motherfuckers! Some of the pilots were saying there was a new Seppy mecha out there that got her. Did you see any new vehicles sir?'

'No. But I didn't engage them as long. I did see a whole shitload of mecha on the ground though.'

'Remember sir, don't eat the meatloaf.'