Depth Charge - red earth

Chapter12

Victor began to regain his senses as he looked up at Leonard leaning over him. 

"Wakey wakey, Victor, time for you to hold up your end of the bargain."

Victor tried to move, but found he was fastened to his seat; bound by the feet and the wrists. "What do you think you are doing, Leonard? You'll never get away with this."

"Tut tut, Victor, I'm not the one who went against orders and sent my team to chase after the creatures, without letting the rest of the team know. Now we of course, will support our teammates, and mount a rescue mission to save them from the obvious danger. I might add, we may encounter a group of terrorists on the way. If they get in our way, I trust I won't have to remind you of our directive to not let anything get in the way of our capturing these creatures."

"You aren't interested in destroying them, Leonard. You just want to make money out of replicating their properties. Now get me out of these bonds!"

"I'd like to, but I'm not sure I can trust you. We'll see how we go, but for now you'll just have to settle for being ... bait!"

Starting up the buggies, they made their way to the back of what was the crop field; heading for where they had last seen Ryan and the others run away. Each buggy had wide round tyres that could navigate the unsealed terrain. The chassis of each buggy could realign its shape in order to transform itself into a narrower configuration, enabling it to pass through tighter tunnels if needed. In addition to their personal armour pieces, Leonard had ordered that the buggies be shielded as well. Heather was also able to bring a large range of weapons from Victor's department. All she had to do was flash the signed directive from the Governor, and no-one questioned her.

Behind them, Carl had just made his way through the front security doors, and had gotten to the main office of the crop field. Ryan had let him know the way, prior to the incident. It was just the sort of proof Carl needed in order to bring a case of justification in front of the Governor to eliminate these creatures before they eliminated humans.

The young security guard put his arm in front of Carl. "Halt, sir, you cannot proceed any further past this point!"

"Where are those buggies going kid?"

"Sir, you are to turn around now, or I have orders to open fire ..."

With a swift right hook, Carl sent the lad crashing to the hard ground. "Didn't anyone teach you to respect your elders?"

Grabbing a pair of binoculars of the desk, he zoomed the view to observe Leonard heading off with a captive Victor into the soil at the rear of the field. "Huh, funny seeing you on the receiving end of the cuffs hey Victor. Game on," he muttered as he grabbed the gun off the unconscious guard and quickly climbed inside the last crop cruiser.

Downtown Ballistrat City

The violent shaking took everyone by surprise. There had been tremors before, but not like this. Taxi's stopped in the middle of traffic, and shoppers ceased what they were doing; anxiously seeing if the glass exteriors of the high-rise buildings were going to remain fixed, or shatter violently to the ground.

In the distance, the residents of Ballistrat City heard a loud booming noise. Gazing over to Olympus Mons, they noticed plumes of smoke coming out from many different locations upon it. Explosions of fire and ash erupted high into the air until it met with the Halo Shield. The Halo Shield! Could it be that the invention which was supposed to protect the inhabitants of Mars would now seal them in a deathly layer of toxic ash?

The lower ranked officer was still guarding the historic room that had been uncovered at the excavation site. His attention was fixed at the magnanimous show in the distance. The rumbling of the ground below him had caused some concern, but for now, he viewed the smoke and ash rising from Olympus Mons. The dirt below the officer's feet began sifting quickly. As his boots began to sink, he looked down to view shiny black objects scurrying through the soil. Circling, circling, they spread out around him. The officer pulled out his nano blaster and fired randomly into the swirling mass at his feet. The volley caused a cacophony of vile hissing. The officer's body quickly jolted downwards as he felt a sharp pain through his ankles. Screaming out in pain, he dropped his weapon as masses of hideous creatures crawled over his body. Just before his head was about to disappear under the dirt, he looked up to observe the large construction crane about to topple over onto him. Whatever these things were, they no doubt had undermined the footings of the crane. That was the least of his worries though, as his head was pulled underneath and he felt a sharp pain in his lower back.

Arnold Tomlin was shouting for answers, as the other council members, and the planets ecological scientists argued the pros and cons of what to do in the wake of Olympus Mons eruption. There had been speculations over the centuries that something unusual may happen to the mount, but nothing had actually occurred in history to give them any clue of what would transpire. Mankind's manipulation of the natural flow of the planets system may have upset the delicate balance.

"We can't afford to just shut down the Halo Shield! It would only take a few stray meteorites to flatten dozens of buildings and kill hundreds."

"If we don't do something, the ash may kill even more citizens. I refuse to stand here and do nothing."

"Can't we just wait and see what transpires?"

"There is no contact whatsoever from the monitoring team that was based on Olympus Mons, and temperatures continue to increase from underground."

"What about the incident at the crop fields? Are the two events connected? What about the creatures ... ?"

"What about them?" shouted Arnold.

"Well, are there any updates?"

Arnold stood silently. He had heard nothing from Victor's team or Leonard for that matter. The argument would continue about whether or not to deactivate the Halo shield. For now, the powers that be were blind; unable to make a wise decision, while the planet of Mars continued to strain.