Warzone: Nemesis: A Novel of Mars (11 page)

“Sir, the terminator line will cross Landau Crater at zero nine thirty Zulu, July 18
^th
. Sir, in relation to the terminator, I can put you down with roughly over four days of light just after the Soviet satellite passes over. The Soviet satellite passes over Landau once every two hours, has a good visual and can take instrument readings for ten minutes. You have a little less than two hours from landing until the Russkies leave their post to pay you a visit.”

“Affirmative. Take us down, and try to avoid their satellite for the longest period of time you can.”

“Aye, sir. I’ll send for you when we’re ready to land.”

“I want all the build time we can get in daylight, but dark when the Soviet tanks arrive. One more thing Captain, I want all of the high-resolution pictures of the landing area I can get, along with laser imagery. I need a very clear 3D topographical map of the landing zone.”

“Aye, sir.” They were still on radio silence. He opened up a laser digital pulse line-of-sight communication in Morse code to the other ships, advising them to fall in formation behind him in orbit. They would be sending their landing zone coordinates and time when ready. The captain completed the topographical survey for the colonel and sent it by way of his first officer twenty minutes later.

COL Red Fangs thanked the young officer and sat down to a cup of coffee to study the proposed landing zone where he would build his post. He took a sip of coffee and opened the file…

Landau Crater

Coordinates-41.6 °N, 118.1 °W

Diameter-214 km or 132.97 mi

Depth-3.25 km or 2.02 mi

Colongitude-121° at sunrise

Frost Crater is overlaid on the center of the southern rim, seventy-five km in diameter. The inner wall is wider and heavier along the northern side where it has been reinforced by the former rim of Landau. Wood Crater is inside of Landau on the northeast side, seventy-eight km in diameter.

The colonel considered the size of the crater, his mind exploring the possibilities for the best post construction. Given it was a hole approximately two miles deep and 133 miles wide, it was unlikely the Soviet hovertanks could scale the walls if they were steep enough. He quickly thumbed over to the topographical pictures CPT America had given him. The captain combined topographical laser imagery with other known satellite images, constructing a remarkably accurate 3D model of the crater. COL Red Fangs studied the walls until he found what he was looking for. The walls of the west side of the crater were extremely steep, with the exception of a pile of rock slabs. The rocks were overlapping one upon another from the bottom of the crater floor, winding up at a sixty degree angle overall from north to south, changing angles to as steep as seventy degrees in some spots and dropping downward to twenty degrees in others. He thought for a moment. That crater edge would be a great place to position the back of the post, effectively cutting off half a circle to defend. There was only one weak spot, the natural staircase. It would be easy enough to put a few gun turrets, and a guntower or two close to the place where the Soviets would ascend, but he genuinely didn’t want to deploy much defensive hardware there. If the Soviets saw the rim’s edge heavily fortified they wouldn’t come up that way, and the investment of their defenses, which were badly needed at the front, would be wasted. Unless…

LTC Judgment Day was reading a scientific report on Luna over a cup of coffee when COL Red Fangs found him. After the customary salute, COL Red Fangs sat down, opening the file of maps and technical data of the Landau Crater.

“I found something of interest to us.” The colonel slid the topographic map of the Landau Crater to his XO. “This natural staircase here,” he said, tapping his finger on the spot, “is a way the Soviets can come at us from the back side if we center the back of the post to the crater’s rim. Right above the top of the natural staircase it is an overhanging ledge probably weighing about fifty tons, Earth weight—about eight tons, lunar weight.”

“I take it we’re not trying to avoid the natural staircase, but exploit it?”

“Yes, it will cut the line of attack down fifty percent to have our back to the crater, which the Soviets will use for the main thrust of their attack. They will split their forces and try to sneak up through the crater to attack what they think is our unprotected flank.”

“So we show them we’re not exactly as unprotected as they think.”

“Yes, I want you to oversee it personally before they get there. The preparations need to be done during the satellite blackout window. Just make sure the bait is very enticing.”

His XO grinned. “I’ll arrange a surprise for our guests. Sir, this maneuver will also cut off our escape should things go wrong.”

“We have no escape route. We’re committed to staying with our oxygen, fuel, food, water and shelter. That will all be at our post. Concerning the appearance of cutting off our own escape route, this will make the men fight desperately if they think it is a fight to the death. It is our best hope for survival, but it will appear we’re in desperate straits.”

His executive officer pondered for a moment.

“Sir, this is going to be a
bad bear
, isn’t it?”

“It will be very tight. We came to win the right to stay here, not to retreat. When I was young, I learned a valuable lesson. If you bloody the nose of the school bully, you earn certain rights. I intend to make the siege of our post so painful that it will never be attempted again.”

“We’ll give ‘em hell, sir.”

July 14, 1970—Zero Eight Hundred Zulu

The captain had just started a cup of coffee, cream, no sugar, just how he liked it. It was time to call the colonel. His first mate chose the alias
Bucky
as a joke to complement his captain’s call sign.

“LT Bucky!”

“Sir, yes sir!”

“Find COL Red Fangs. Inform him we’re ready to break orbit and land within the hour.”

“He was getting a cup of joe and preparing to come here when I last saw him.”

“Very well.” He should have known he wouldn’t have to summon the colonel. He would have planned on being ready and waiting when they approached their landing zone to build and defend their new post. The captain took note that COL Red Fangs was more relaxed than the last time he saw him. COL Red Fangs approached the bridge with a cup of hot coffee in his hand.
Apparently he does much better in a crisis than in waiting for something to happen
, he thought.

“Is it time to land, Captain?”

“Soon, Colonel, we should be on the lunar surface by zero nine hundred. We’ve been listening to all radio transmissions the Soviets are sending back to Earth. It looks like they don’t know we’re here.”

“Excellent! I want to catch them with their pants down. We need every break we can get.”

“Aye, sir.” With that, CPT America signaled the rest of the vessels trailing him to prepare to follow him down.

An oxygen extraction and metal refining plant would be constructed to ensure his men’s survival and give them building materials. Ilmenite, a lunar mineral rich in oxygen, also contained iron and titanium. Rich in oxygen was an understatement. Ilmenite consisted of forty-three percent oxygen. The computer banks of the alien vessel recovered from the Navajo crash site revealed a treasure trove of technological wealth. The most important one for building a self-sufficient post was the formula for processing Ilmenite into iron, titanium and oxygen. The process essentially took a rock crusher, a solar furnace and a little chemical manipulation to turn FeTiO
₃
into the pure elements that allowed them to survive. Once the buildings had their air in them, a very efficient carbon dioxide filtration system would keep it clean. The iron and titanium would be used to construct lunar steel in the mill they would construct.

Luna has sunlight for only half of each month, so the passive solar electric plant could be used for the half-month long days. After the darkness descended upon them, they would have to rely on conventional fuel for all of their energy needs until the light returned for two weeks.

The Americans had little room for error in their construction plans. Within forty-one hours of landing, the Soviets would have a full tank regiment knocking at their door. They had to have their defensive grid up and enough of their artillery line up to stop the Soviet tanks from starting the charge right away. The colonel had to manage four things: men, equipment, time, and alloy-x. They also had to get some scavengers salvaging alloy-x on the Frost crater as soon as possible before the Soviets shut the operation down. They would be sending some of the ships back as soon as they unloaded to get more men, equipment and supplies. Other ships they would recycle as soon as the recycler was operational. The men still needed to be able to eat and sleep somewhere until the main building was built, so some ships would remain as barracks for a while. Timing was critical for everything.

July 14, 1970—Zero Seven Thirty Zulu

The captain would be breaking orbit soon. The descent would be a bit bumpy, so the men were all awakened and fed breakfast before they descended to their landing zone. COL Red Fangs had joined CPT America on the bridge, coffee cup in hand.

July 14, 1970—Zero Eight Thirty Zulu

“Breaking orbit and descending now,” reported the captain. “Colonel, I’d get rid of that coffee cup and strap in if I were you. The descent may get a bit bumpy.&rdquo

“Thank you Captain.&rdquo The colonel drained the last of the cup and placed his empty cup in a secure locker.

The Soviets’ highest priority would be to stamp out Eagle 2 before it was established, ending America’s plans for colonizing the solar system. Captain America wondered if the post would still be standing when he returned with more supplies.

Vietnam had taught the colonel one thing, if nothing else. Superior numbers didn’t always win battles. Air support was the deciding factor in many battles won in Vietnam, but here he would have to rely on artillery. Mines were also useful, and he would utilize all they brought with them. The order of the day upon landing was to get the defensive grid up—complete with minefields, build their environmental support system and produce as many artillery pieces and tanks as they could muster, with the emphasis on the artillery.

Tanks alone couldn’t take their post, and artillery pieces were slow and lumbering in transport. The colonel knew if the Soviets brought their artillery, the whole siege force wouldn’t be here for almost four days. The choice location was somewhere on the far side of the moon because that was where the alloy-x was, not to mention for security. The Americans didn’t want some college student at an observatory somewhere viewing a developed military post with a telescope. The “dark side” or far side is the side of the moon never visible from Earth because the moon’s rotation and orbit are synchronized in such a way that only one side ever faces the Earth. It would be more correct to call it the far side, as it gets the same amount of light from the sun, and the bright side would best be referred to as the near side. The best radio transmissions to Earth were from the near side. To keep their post from detection, they would build it on the far side, and use satellite relays for radio transmissions.

At precisely zero nine hundred, fifteen minutes into the one hour fifty-minute Soviet satellite blackout window over Landau Crater, the Americans landed.

LTC Judgment Day was in charge of the nuts and bolts of coordinating the different construction projects while COL Red Fangs ran the overall operation. The post would be constructed with its back to the west side of the Landau Crater and the natural staircase, terminating dead center of the post, as COL Red Fangs had instructed.

Tactical Operations would be run from the bridge until the post HQ building was built and technical functions could be transferred to their own room. Then the medical supplies, food and rest of the perishable cargo would be moved into post HQ and CPT America could return to Earth. The doctor and nurse set up a temporary sick bay, and coffee and mess were set up on three different freighters.

The men rolled out of the transport freighters and started unloading the recycler. Part of the construction crew was assigned to set up the recycler as quickly as possible. Two heavy mining trucks, a crawler excavator and an excavator backhoe built for the harsh lunar environment were unloaded next along with a furnace pot and rock crusher. The Americans now had four empty freighters ready for recycling. Six other vessels were refueled and sent back to Earth to get more men, equipment and supplies.

COL Red Fangs set up his command center and tactical operations on the bridge of CPT America’s ship. This would give him nearly instant status updates from his tech boys as well as communications with the construction crew. COL Red Fangs approached the bridge, and his two technicians saluted.

“Captain, is everything set up?”

“Right over here, Colonel. This workstation was set up so you can communicate with all of the work teams at all times. I’ll be available at your call if you need any assistance. These three switches are your comm. links to LTC Judgment Day, CSM Rainmaker, and the mess sergeant to have him send food over. The light next to them will light up when you have an incoming call. Just flip the switch if you wish to answer or call out. If you flip two switches at once, you’ll be able to conference both. Closing one switch will allow you to terminate that call and still remain connected to the other. The switch on the far left will open a link to them all at once for a general message to all. Anything else?”

“No, thank you. That will be all, Captain.”

“Good, my last cup of coffee has summoned me to the head. I will be right back.”

The colonel looked at his two technicians keeping an eye on the Soviets with the satellite uplink. They had access to areas of interest when the satellite did a flyby.

“CPT Watchful Eye?”

“Sir. Yes sir?”

“I want a report of what the Soviets are doing every time the satellite passes over, even if it’s not interesting.”