Ruby had to stop herself from screaming, realising that doing so would risk their lives. She dropped within the rock outcrop with Larson as they hid from sight.
“What the hell are they?” he asked her.
“I have no fucking idea!”
“Did they just execute those two people?”
“What do you think?”
“What the hell are we going to do?”
“I don’t know, okay!”
Larson crept up from behind the rock face and peered out into the valley. The two figures strode towards their ship and into a small lifting device that hoisted them into the vessel. He looked down at the bodies, still lifeless on the hard ground. A low pulsing sound resonated from the peculiar ship as it began to lift off from the surface. Keeping low to the ground, it soared off in the opposite direction from where they had left their shuttle.
“Are they gone?” asked Ruby.
“Yes, what are we going to do?”
“Get the hell out of here!”
“What about them?” he pointed to the bodies of their fallen comrades.
“They’re dead. I have no idea what we have just witnessed, but unless you want to follow them I suggest we make a run for it.”
“Right, let’s move!”
They got up from behind the rocks and made a dash for their ship, as quickly they could in the gravity on Mars. It felt like a long run back to the vessel. Despite the valley being just as tranquil and desolate as it previously was, they expected to be struck down at any moment. Larson arrived first, surprised to have made it. With seconds of getting aboard they were in the air. He reached for the intercom button to contact their colony.
“Wait!” shouted Ruby.
“What? We have to call this in!”
“And say what, that we just saw some unidentified beings kill two of our research team, but that we don’t have any idea who or what they are, where they came from, or have any evidence to backup our story?”
“That doesn’t change the fact that it happened,” said Larson.
“No, but this has to be handled properly. We need the base staff to take this seriously, not to think we have lost our minds.”
“Alright, you do it.”
She reached forward and hit the intercom switch. “This is Shuttle 12 to Ares, please come in, over.”
“This is Ares Command, over.”
“We have a Code Red, I repeat, Code Red, over.”
There was an uncomfortable silence as they soared across the surface of the planet. Clearly their signal had caused a shockwave to the colony. Code Red was an emergency signal for extreme situations only, none of which they had ever experienced. Finally a signal came back over the radio.
“This is Morris, what the hell is going on?”
Morris was the research base commander, a leading scientist and project leader for over twenty years.
“Please switch to a direct and private channel, over,” replied Ruby.
A few moments later the Commander came back on the line.
“You’re on with me directly, explain to me what the hell is going on!”
“Sir, we just witnessed the execution of the crew of Shuttle 5 by two unidentified personnel, over.”
“What? Where are they now?”
“They left heading south in a vessel which appeared to mimic the ground’s surface and was approximately twice the size of our shuttle, over.”
“Did you collect any data from the scene?”
“No, Sir, we left in fear of our lives. I advise an immediate issue of the Lee Protocol, over.”
“Listen to me, Ruby, these are some extreme suggestions you are making, based on no evidence that you can present to me. I can’t risk widespread panic based on hearsay.”
“This is not a joke, Sir. We came close to death and some of our people were not so lucky. Now issue the damn protocol and lock the colony down!”
“I’ll issue it, but you’d better be right about this or you’ll be out the door!”
“Sir, I wish I wasn’t, we’ll be with you in just under three hours, be ready, over and out.”
She turned off the intercom and continued to stare out at the ground as their shuttle darted across the rough landscape, hugging the terrain. Larson looked over to her, but it seemed she didn’t intend giving anything up.
“Lee Protocol?” he asked.
“It’s an emergency protocol calling for all weapons trained personnel to immediately arm themselves and prepare for imminent attack.”
“We have a plan for that?”
“It was always a possibility, we just never expected it to actually happen.”
“What did happen?” asked Larson.
“I really don’t know!”
* * *
They finally caught sight of the Ares research colony, knowing they were all in big trouble. But somehow facing it in larger numbers made them feel much safer. The compound was still, all vehicle movement had been stopped and all exits sealed except for their docking bay.
“This is Shuttle 12 to Ares, requesting permission to land, over,” said Ruby.
“Permission authorised, over.”
The large steel doors slid open, revealing an almost full docking bay. Only their bay, Shuttle 5’s pad and the freight loader area were empty. The doors quickly shut behind them, sealing the environment and allowing people to again walk freely. Ruby brought the shuttle down to a quick and smooth landing. They could see that Morris and several others of the senior research team were waiting for them. They all wore pressure suits and several had pistols slung on their waists. Ruby and Larson stepped out to greet their colleagues who were grim faced.
“You’d better start talking, Ruby,” said Morris.
“I don’t know how else to say this, Sir. When we arrived at the co-ordinates we found Shuttle 5 empty. We followed our scanner to the site of four readings, where we witnessed the execution of the shuttle’s crew by two beings, the likes of which I have never seen.”
“You saw this too?” asked Morris.
“Yes, Sir, they had a ship with some type of chameleon skin to it. Their weapons appeared to be energy based devices.”
“Do we have any reason to think that any other organisations could be on the planet with us, Sir?” asked Ruby.
“Like who?”
“I don’t know, a private company, or a foreign military.”
“This is a joint operation by twenty-one countries, who would try and undermine that?”
Morris’ intercom on his wrist crackled as a transmission came through from their command centre.
“Sir, we have three vessels incoming, they are not responding to...”
Before the operator could finish a huge explosion erupted in the entry doors to the docking yard. They were knocked off their feet by the blast.
“Masks on! Masks on!” Morris shouted.
Larson and Ruby hit the controls on their suits and slid their dome-topped helmets over to revert to their own oxygen supply. They huddled behind a stack of large crates and watched as three small vessels passed through the breach swooping in quickly to land in the wide-open area used for supply deliveries. The vessels were mimicking their surroundings just as the one did before, now replicating the grey metallic surfaces of the docking area.
Within seconds of landing, six figures emerged from them and were already shooting at any people they could see. Morris looked in horror as he drew his pistol.
“What do we do, Sir?” shouted Larson.
He didn’t respond, only watched as four of their armed personnel tried to engage their armoured foes. The energy weapons fizzled as blue pulses ripped through the interior of the walls. Within seconds the defenders were lying dead on the floor of the docking bay, their bodies smouldering. Morris had quickly come to the same conclusion that they had previously. These were not humans.
The figures walked on thin metallic legs that appeared to be sprung, supporting their substantial bodies. They could only imagine that it was an armoured suit encasing whatever was controlling it. Morris turned back to Larson and Ruby.
“We are finished here, take your shuttle, you’ll have enough power and supplies to reach the Moon colony. Get a transmission out immediately reporting what you have seen, they must be warned!”
“How are we going to get past them?” asked Ruby.
They turned back to watch as the six soldiers continued on into the heart of the colony. They were certainly on a mission to purge it. Morris looked back at the two men he had with him, each was armed with the same personal defence weapon he had in his hand.
“We’ll try and hold them here as long as we can, you just get out and send that signal immediately!”
“What do they want from us?” she asked.
The shock had begun to pass as fear set in. All around them had long faces, they were realising that their lives were likely coming to an abrupt end. A number of the personnel had firearms training on the research colony, but never expected a need to use them.
“You know as much as I do, now get out of here!” shouted Morris.
He moved out from beyond the crates with the other crew and rushed to the door where the soldiers had gone through. They knew they were heading for their own deaths, but there was no choice left. Ruby and Larson watched as they reached the doorway. Morris looked back at them and nodded. They took the signal for what it was and leapt out from the cover and ran to their shuttle. The engines were fired up before the shuttle ramp was closed. Larson stumbled as they lifted off the docking bay floor as he was trying to make his way towards the cockpit.
“Come on, strap yourself in!” she shouted at him.
He jumped into the seat as she manoeuvred them out. He stared at the obscure ships occupying their docking bay. They were the same vessel type they had witnessed earlier. The ever-changing surface texture that camouflaged them against any terrain still made it difficult to fully make out any details on them.
“Time to get the hell out of here!”
She hit the power and they surged towards the smashed doorway where the attackers had blasted through. In seconds they burst out of the docking bay and quickly gained altitude. They had expected to see some monstrous vessel blocking their path, but there was nothing. Only the same barren and desolate landscape and sky they had become so accustomed. The shuttle broke out of the Mars atmosphere and into the cold darkness of space. There were still no signs of any other ships in the vicinity.
“We made it!” shouted Larson.
“Maybe.”
Ruby reached forward and programmed the transmitter to send a direct and live feed to their sister organisation on the Moon colony.
“You’re going to send it out live?”
“Yes, we have no idea how much time we have.”
She took a deep breath and started the transmission.
“This is Shuttle 12 of the Ares research base. The colony has just been attacked by unidentified hostiles. We are the only known survivors. The attackers utilised a chameleon type technology on their ships and attacked without provocation or any form of communication. They were well equipped and ruthless.”
“What’s that on the scanner?” asked Larson.
She looked down to see an object approaching them from the planet at high speed.
“Hold on!”
The shuttle surged forward as Ruby put full power to their engines.
“At this speed we won’t have enough power to reach any of the colonies!” shouted Larson.
“If we can’t outrun these bastards it won’t matter anyway!”
“They’re still gaining on us!”
“Larson, are we still transmitting?”
“Yes!”
“This is Shuttle 12, we are under attack by what can only be described as alien forces, we cannot outrun them, do not...”
The shuttle was hit by a high power weapon that ripped it open killing both aboard instantly, the remnants floated apart in a fizzling array of twisted metal.