down.'
Callahan said nothing. He was too tired to be enraged any further. He sincerely hoped however, that the greenie forces wouldn't surrender in the next few days as was being predicted my most of the government and military officials that were being interviewed. He wanted to smoke some greenie ass as well and he wanted to do it by leading an actual armored assault, just like an ACR was supposed to fight. There would be no marching around in the mountains and trees, picking at an enemy that hid like a coward. They would be pitting tanks against tanks, APCs against entrenched infantry troops. And since they would outnumber the greenies by more than four to one it would be a pushover battle, something that would offer some valuable experience that would be helpful in the event a
EastHem Capital Building, London
May 28, 2146
The Martian Declaration of Independence was a short document, less than a page in length. It contained no flowery speech, no legalese terms, in fact very few adjectives of any kind. It was a simple statement proclaiming that the Planet of Mars had forcibly broken ties with WestHem and now considered itself a free and sovereign nation, with all of the rights and privileges that went along with such a thing. It asked that the two governments of EastHem and WestHem immediately recognize the Planet Mars as such and that they publicly acknowledge it. The document was fingerprint signed by Governor Laura Whiting, the loyal members of the legislature, and General Jackson. Attached to it as a separate file were the certified results of the Independence vote. The declaration and the file had been digitized and sent over an unencrypted frequency to both EastHem and WestHem.
The upper echelon of the EastHem government had been following the events on Mars very closely over the past two weeks. They had watched with glee as the reports had come in regarding the takeover of the planet and the capture of a third of the WestHem navy at anchor. A certain trepidation had fallen over them when they'd received the text of Governor Whiting's address the night of the capture however. She had told the solar system that in order for their revolution to succeed that they would have to engage in trade with EastHem. She had admitted that on an open channel for all the people of both worlds to hear. That had forced the powers-that-be of EastHem into a frenzy as they tried to figure out how to respond to this.
Though EastHem was portrayed by the WestHem media as a fascist dictatorship, in truth the government there was very similar to the government of WestHem. Primarily EastHem was a capitalistic society in which huge corporations controlled the vast majority of the wealth. The official head of the government was a ruling council of nine representatives. Like on WestHem, these politicians were merely puppets for the corporate money that had purchased them and their votes.
Anthony Billings was the chief executive council member. A handsome, charismatic, fifty-five year old Londoner, he was owned quite thoroughly by A&C Hydrogen, the biggest producer of fuel in the hemisphere. He had called a special meeting of the council to discuss a matter of great importance in regards to the Martian situation.
'My fellow councilmembers,' he said to his colleagues. 'Forgive me for pulling you from your offices in the middle of a workday but I have received word from Mr. Jennings...' he pointed to Kelsey Jennings, the EastHem national security adviser, '... that an encrypted message from the Martian governor has arrived just thirty minutes ago. This is a message that has great bearing on the questions that we have been debating since the Martian revolution took place and one that needs a quick decision.'
'Is she asking for trade?' asked Barbara Cassidy, another senior member of the council. Kiev Food Products, the agricultural giant of EastHem, owned her. Her sponsors, and therefore herself as well, were quite eager to participate in trade with Mars as it would easily increase their profits by more than a hundred percent.
'I will play the message for all of us to see in just a moment,' Billings replied. 'We will then open a discussion on the matter. I have taken the liberty of inviting Mr. Jennings to this meeting as well as General Hans, the chairman of our joint chiefs.' He nodded towards a uniformed general sitting at his left. Like most of the EastHem military leaders, he was German in ancestry. 'Both of these gentlemen possess some expertise that we will need in order to decide the next step in this process. And now, with no further ado, I will play the message for you.'
He spoke a few words to the computer terminal, which caused the lights to dim down and the large view screen at the front of the room to come to life. Everyone watched attentively as Laura Whiting's face, a face that looked tired and drawn from the recent stress that the woman had undergone, filled the screen.
'Greetings, honored ruling council of EastHem,' the image said emotionlessly. 'By now I'm sure you're aware of the recent events on the planet Mars and I trust that you have received our declaration of independence — a document that was sent out two hours before this message — and had a chance to look it over. I am also confident that you have been monitoring the news broadcasts that have been generated, including the one that portrayed my Independence Day speech to the planet.
'As is the Martian way, I will get right to the point of what I want. Mars is going to have to go to war with WestHem in order to keep our independence secure. As I speak they are loading up marine units into naval ships with the intention of taking our planet away from us and putting it back under their control. We intend to fight them but in order to do that, we are going to need fuel, and lots of it. You folks have fuel and you have the means to deliver it. We would like to engage in straight trade with you for this commodity. In exchange we offer you the commodity that you are perpetually short of: food. We have the means of ending the famine that regularly plagues your nation and boosting your economy exponentially. We will exchange a large portion of our food surplus for your fuel. We require that the fuel will be shipped to our storage tanks at Triad on a bi-monthly basis and that your cargo ships arrive at the same destination in order to pick up the food products. The terms we will offer will be more than fair, in fact they will be quite extravagant.
'As I said in my speech, you hold our fate in your hands. If you refuse to do business with us, our revolution will die in the time that it takes the WestHem landing ships to arrive here. Mars will go back to being a WestHem possession and you will never enjoy Martian agricultural products on your shelves. If you do agree to trade with us you will be subjecting yourself to anger from WestHem. I don't think that that anger would lead to military action on their part but I cannot guarantee that. It is a question that you will have to decide for yourselves.
'Our terms for this deal are few but they are non-negotiable. If you accept our offer it must be done openly, without deceit. We require that you publicly recognize us as the legitimate government of Mars and that you acknowledge our independence. We will not engage in secret trade agreements or clandestine operations to secure this fuel. If you treat us as one sovereign nation dealing with another, you will reap huge benefits. If you are not willing to do that, than we would rather flounder. The decision is now yours. Please get back to us as quickly as possible with your response.
'Thank you, Laura Whiting, acting Governor of Mars.'
The screen clicked off and the lights came back on. Everyone continued to stare at the screen for a moment, all of them somewhat taken aback by the briefness of the message.
'Well,' said Cassidy, 'she certainly doesn't mince words, does she?' As a third generation politician, used to being addressed formally, she was actually a bit offended by Whiting's brevity.
'No,' Billings agreed with a sigh, 'she certainly doesn't. But let us forgive her for this minor transgression, shall we? Martians are well known for their crudity with the spoken word. After all, look at their ancestry. They are the descendents of welfare recipients of a society that were once the lower classes from this hemisphere. It amazes me sometimes that they can speak coherently at all.'
The assembled politicians and military leaders all had a laugh at this jest although, in truth, none of them really thought it was all that funny. But when the CECM made a joke, you laughed at it. That was proper etiquette after all.
'In any case,' Billings went on, 'I suggest we concentrate more on Ms. Whiting's message than the words she used to deliver it with. Though no firm terms have been laid out, she is offering us a portion of their food surplus in exchange for fuel and official recognition of their government. The question we need to be asking is: are these terms acceptable?'
'We can't recognize the Martian government as official,' Cassidy said immediately. 'There's no telling what WestHem would do in that instance. They have nuclear weapons pointed at our cities and millions of troops across the Bering Straight from us. It's simply too risky to change the status quo in that manner.'
'So you're saying that we should ignore this offer?' Billings asked. 'Ignore the strengthening of our economy that this influx of food resources could represent?'
