 
Alien Attack

A Story By

Philip R Benge

Smashwords Edition

***************

Published by

Philip R Benge on Smashwords

Alien Attack

Copyright Philip R Benge 2019

Cover Art Copyright Philip R Benge 2019

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This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author`s imagination and used fictitiously.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One: The Attack Begins

Chapter Two: On to Mars

Chapter Three: The Reptoid Ark

Chapter Four: Battle in Space

Chapter Five: Escape from the Ark

Chapter Six: Battle above Mars

About the Author

Other Books by the author

Alien Attack

Prologue

The astronomers of a reptilian race living on the planet Reptoid, which was in a planetary system over 100 light years away from Earth, had discovered that while most stars had a retinue of planets, not many of them were capable of sustaining life. The Reptoids, being a particularly aggressive and militaristic people, wanted the limited number of planets that were capable of sustaining life for their own race, and without a thought for the rights of any life that already existed upon these planets. The Reptoids were olive green in colour, leathery of skin and reproduced by laying eggs, otherwise they were otherwise much like the people who lived on Earth. Back in the Victorian age on Earth, near to the end of the nineteenth century, a drone was sent by the Reptoids to investigate our solar system and it went in to orbit around the Earth. It unfurled its solar panels, made use of all of its advanced technology along with its eavesdropping equipment and it sent back masses of data to its home world via the Reptoids first forays in to their use of hyperspace. Although their chosen planet, Earth, had been found to be inhabited, this did not deter them, for they saw that the inhabitants were a semi-barbaric and moreover, they were a lowly mammal race. The drone conscientiously reported back for decades until its power was almost exhausted, then, after reporting this fact back to its Reptoid creators, it went off the air and became the first piece of space junk to orbit around the planet.

Chapter One

The Attack Begins

Many years later, in the year 2085, as measured on Earth, a gigantic Reptoid vessel entered the outer edges of the Sol solar system, the vessel was in fact a hollowed out asteroid measuring 900 feet in diameter, one which had been turned in to a space Ark. This had been the third of such vessels, the first two having been sent to colonise two other planetary systems, exporting their own particular culture to these planetary systems, one inhabited by a people still in their Palaeolithic age, the second world did not have any intelligent life upon it. The mass and size of the three space arks meant that they could not utilize the newly created hyperspace engine, and so they made use of the Ion Drive, which meant that the journey took more than one lifetime.

One of the reasons why they took so long to arrive at the Sol solar system was because it took them a long time to hollow out the asteroid and then to convert it in to a space ark. Especially one that had six accommodation areas which included washing facilities, eating areas and recreational areas, they were levels six to eleven. The large hold filled level twelve while the top three levels of the Ark were used for their hydroponics farms, as were levels thirteen to twenty-six. The large hanger bay was on the fourth level, within it sat a single fast attack vessel and six large transport vessels and an aging freighter. The main task of the latter seven vessels would be to transport the colonists and their goods down to their new home, Earth. The Ark itself was meant to stay in orbit around Earth to act as an enormous space station.

The large command area within the Ark was in the forward section of level five, it was much like the bridge of a Hollywood starship. It was filled with computer consoles, a large view screen dominated the inner hull bow wall, the area for the helmsman and the navigator was just before it, the captain's command chair behind them and the science and engineering consoles were to the left and right of him. The engineering section itself was at the rear of level five, it contained two massive Ion drive engines. In the mid-section of level five was the large environmental section, which had to supply clean air, water and heat for the colonists and the hydroponic areas. The space ark's massive store of water ran through miles of pipes and surrounded the accommodation area of the hollowed out asteroid, giving additional protection to the crew and its passengers against cosmic radiation. The solid rock of the asteroid was the Reptoid's principal protection against the abundance of radiation in space and also against any micro-meteor strikes.

The original voyagers were now dead, and it was their descendants who inhabited the craft after a journey of 70 Earth-years. Originally there had been just 500 couples, all under 30 years of age, except for the original four command members of the crew; the commander, his 2nd in command, the senior doctor and the chief engineer and five civilians, the consul, who was in overall command of the colonists, and four scientists. These nine Reptoids all ranged between 30 to 50 years of age and were all male. Their replacements came from amongst the offspring of the colonists, and of course their own offspring, none of whom had ever known another life except that of life inside an asteroid. At present, there were 750 couples, many of them only young children, but already paired up, some were nearing 70 years of age, and they had agreed to accept an early death as more children were born, for 1500 beings was the maximum number the Ark could comfortably accommodate. These older travellers were hoping that they would soon be living upon the planet Earth, and so they would not need to give up their lives for the younger Reptoids.

The Reptoid Commander of the Space Ark was a six feet tall heavily built male creature named Hierz Bramzs. The Reptoid race was now tailless, and so he resembled a human, being, an upright biped with two legs and two arms. Bramzs was resplendent in his red jacket and black trousers; he was sitting in his command chair looking at the forward view screen as their vessel took them passed Saturn.

His 2nd in command was named Mystra Artegon, his jacket was blue denoting his rank. Artegon was slightly shorter in height than his captain and not so heavily built, but compared to a human he was a veritable Hercules. Artegon was sitting at the science console, his task, to ensure that there were no surprises in store for them as they moved nearer to this system's star, our sun.

Demi-Major Briestz was standing next to him, another giant of a creature, his jacket was black denoting that he was a pilot, he was in command of their fast attack vessel. As he too did not want to encounter any surprises when he took his vessel out of the vast hanger bay on the Ark, he was checking the same screen as Artegon.

The helmsman and the navigator were the remaining members of the crew currently within the command area, both wearing brown jackets, denoting their junior rank. The balance of the crew on this watch comprised three male Reptoids, they were in engineering and so wore yellow sweatshirts. A senior doctor commanded the medical department, it consisted of three other male doctors and eight female nurses. They were in the large clinic one deck below and wore clinical white, at the moment there were no serious cases requiring their attention. They were listed amongst the many scientists who were part of the elite amongst the Reptoids, all of whom were watching one of the smaller view screens, their attention was fixed upon Saturn and some of its many moons.

Amongst the colonists were 100 Reptoids who were skilled in the various trades needed to keep the Ark operational, such as in the environmental, electrical, plumbing, engineering or scientific departments. There were also 120 Reptoids who were trained as a rapid reaction hit squad, if needed they would be used against any humans who had not been disabled in the first 24 hours of the actual invasion of Earth. Although Earth had a population of eight billion, this small number of aliens was considered by them to be quite enough to handle the human population, who, after all, were only mammals. Of course, the Reptoids were actually counting on the advanced technology to win the planet Earth for them, and amongst it, they possessed one terrible weapon.

Many of the colonists worked in the hydroponics farms, which supplied the travellers with all of their food. The female colonists worked either in the kitchens, or as cleaners, as orderlies helping in the clinic, as teachers at the schools and nurseries, it was easy to see that the Reptoid race did not believe in sexual equality. The sex of each individual, limited the number of jobs or professions that they were offered or chose, as did their social position. The colonists spent half of their free time training, although lately they had also been learning about their new home and the creatures that populated it, including Man.

As the Ark passed by Jupiter, the Reptoid's despatched a small ultra-fast stealth drone which carried a telescope and a communications system. It would listen in to the strongest radio signals coming from Earth and relay them back to the Ark. It would also keep watch on the human race, using its telescope. Its primary mission was to orbit Earth at a distance of two million miles and to warn the Reptoids if Earth launched a spaceship in search of them. The Reptoid's knew that they would have to destroy the present civilisation on Earth, before they could take the planet for themselves, but they saw no problem in genocide followed by a planetary-wide slavery of the remaining humans, mixed in with farming the necessary animals needed for food, this included the human population.

They declared war as they neared Mars, although they did not notify anyone. Bramzs looked across at his 2nd in command.

"Mystra, launch a Silencer drone and take out their communications." Bramzs said in a deep guttural voice which was usual amongst the race.

Moments later a stealth drone was launched from the Ark, it looked so small against the immense size of the Ark, but it was packed with advanced technology. It moved passed the red planet and went in to a position 150,000 miles away from the red planet, in a geostationary orbit that would always keep it between Mars and Earth. It then began to operate, any radio messages, or streams of data, travelling between the Earth and Mars were now being jammed.

Bramzs looked at his personal computer screen, it showed him that the drone was operating as required, he had personally started a war, but he did not feel exultant, he felt sick, for they were about to destroy an advanced civilisation. He knew that he was not as able as his father had been, but with his father's early death, his years of development had been cut short and he had been propelled in to the rank of exalted commander.

**********

On the planet Earth, the people at NASA, and also in various other space faring nations, suddenly lost contact with their bases on Mars. The two American bases were Mars One and Mars Two, and they also included people from many other countries including the UK. The other bases were operated by the Russians, the Chinese and the Indian nations.

Mars One, the largest base on Mars, was mostly underground, to not only protect the team from the harmful radiation that constantly bombarded the planet, but also from any micro-meteorites that were also visitors to Mars. The team there were still in contact with their satellites and robotic devices on the planet's surface, but Commander Michael Patel had lost contact with Earth in mid-sentence. He had been speaking to James Bartlett, the NASA administrator. Luckily, Mars One had a back-up transmitter that made use of laser technology, it continued to operate as it sent its streams of data on a different wavelength to that used by the radio. It had one problem, it could not be used when bad weather covered the skies above the sender of the recipient of the data, such as Kennedy Space Center, but today the weather was fine. Otherwise, in an emergency, it could be used to contact the Moon, assuming a Martian dust storm had not covered the base.

Wondering why contact with Earth had been lost, Michael Patel switched over to the laser communications system and resumed his conversation with Bartlett. Resumed was not quite right for at the moment there was an eight-minute delay before he heard Bartlett's replies to his own comments. He reported that nothing exceptional had occurred on or around the red planet, apart from them losing contact with the inner solar system. Moments later and Bartlett received a report from one of the scientists at the Kennedy Space Center.

"Michael, I have just been informed by Dr Singh here at the space centre, that we are no longer in contact with any of the robotic devices on Mars, and as we lost radio contact just now, something must be wrong with your new communications system."

The new communications system as well as being the base's main radio, also gathered all the data from the various American robotic devices on Mars and sent them to Earth, rather than have Earth listening in to various data streams coming from individual devices. Bartlett now had to wait for at least eight minutes before he received a reply from Mars, finally Michael Patel's reply came through to Bartlett.

"As you say James, it must be the communications array, everything else is working up here. I will look in to the matter immediately and get back to you."

Michael Patel checked out the central communications radio system, but he found that it was working perfectly. A steady stream of data was being sent towards Earth, the cause of the breakdown in radio communications, he reasoned, must be somewhere between the two planets. He decided to carry out a manual search for whatever was stopping him from communicating with Earth via the communications centre. He walked across to the base's main computer and began to set up their small refractor telescope; soon it was looking towards Earth. He hoped to find the cause as to why only their laser technology was working, initially he had thought that it had to be a solar flare, except that the sun had been quiet for the last two weeks, no flares had made their presence known. He grunted in disappointment, for he saw nothing to tell him what was causing the problem, but he realised that the chance of finding a quick answer to their problem had been a long shot, given the distances involved. He looked across at the others of his team within this section of the base, hoping to find an answer amongst them, perhaps it was someone's current research interfering with the radio waves? Suddenly, they heard a loud whistling noise that ended abruptly. This made everyone within the base stop whatever they were doing and stand up with a startled look upon their faces, were they at the scene of a Mars quake or some form of volcanic activity, it would explain the high-pitched whistling sound. Michael Patel was the first to react, he used his computer to operate the camera that would allow them to see outside, this was the quickest way to check on the ground around the base and would not risk any lives. What they saw made them sigh with relief, until, one by one, they realised the consequences to the event. They all crossed over to the monitor to gaze at a small smoking crater, which was some thirty feet away from the walls of the base.

"Thank god the base has not been breached, any closer to us and we could have been looking at a major emergency." Michael Patel said and then added. "It must have been a meteorite, it has destroyed our Laser communications system, meaning that for the moment we are out of contact with both the Earth and the Moon."

"Michael, if it was a meteorite, wouldn't we have heard it strike the laser, seeing as how it was just feet away from the base?" Andreas Georgiadis, one of the geologists at the base asked quizzically. "And after losing our radio, the loss of our laser communications is one hell of a coincidence."

"Yes, you are correct Andreas, but what else could it have been, a laser attack by the Russian or the Chinese, why would they, we are on good terms with them, relatively speaking that is?" Michael replied.

No one had an answer to his question, but they were all a little worried now. Other members of the base were now walking in to the control room, they had also been worried that they had just witnessed some form of volcanic activity, they too began asking questions that Michael could not answer yet, so he turned to his head geologist, Lee Masters, and said.

"Lee, you and I had better suit up to check over the impact crater and the remains of the laser, just in case it was something else other than a meteor strike. As Andreas just said, after losing our radio communications, it really is too much of a coincidence."

Lee Masters was already moving before Michael had finished speaking, he nodded towards Michael and then asked Veronika Babacina, a tall Russian botanist who had taken out American citizenship.

"Veronica can you help us put on our suits."

Veronica smiled and walked towards the tall American.

"Of course, I will assist you both gladly. Oh, and do be careful out there, just in case one of the Martian ghosts is responsible for our problem."

Lee Masters smiled and replied.

"Veronica, there is no such thing as Martian ghosts, it was made up to sell a book, all we have here is a lump of hot rock that does not like laser technology."

"We shall see Lee, but don't come calling on me to hold your hand when they sneak up behind you."

Michael smiled and ordered Lee Masters and Veronica to the main airlock and twenty minutes later the two men were exiting the airlock, which luckily, had not been damaged. Everyone in the base was worried by the occurrence, was it an attack by one of the other bases on Mars, if not, then what was it? Of course, they still had another laser communications centre in the Return Home spaceship, they could use it in an emergency, if they were under attack.

Michael and Lee Masters walked across to the still smoking, but small, craterlet, and looked down at its burnt surface. Lee Masters shook his head and said.

"What I do not understand is where all the debris and wreckage went, look around us Michael, there isn't any."

"And the craterlet, it is as smooth as a baby's bottom, why?" Patel asked.

"Whatever it was that took out this link to Earth, it was not a meteor Michael, yes, the surface looks to have been melted by an impact, but we should also have seen debris around the craterlet. And the size of it, it is just large enough to encompass the laser communications system, no bigger. I had better take a sample of the melted rock back in to the base for examination, see if we can find any clues as to what just happened here."

Lee knelt down and took out a small chisel and hammer and began to attack the Martian rock inside the small craterlet. When he had enough pieces of melted rock, the two men returned to the main dome of the base. Both were now worried that the Russians or the Chinese were behind the attack, if so, would they send an armed force against them in an attempt to take the base by force.

"Michael, I will get to work on these samples straight away, I will let you know how I get on." Lee Masters said and then headed over to the small area that was his laboratory.

Michael used the communications centre to contact Richie Compton in Mars Two, to put them in the picture, he learned that all was peaceful over there.

"Richie, you had better keep a constant watch for whoever is behind the attack on us, for sure as eggs are eggs, they will not leave it there."

Relieved that the people at Mars Two were all okay, Michael arranged for a watch to be kept on all the airlocks of Mars One, via their computer monitor. At the moment the multi-split screen just showed the Martian rock outside of the base, nothing more. However, if they were attacked, they only had a small number of weapons, for no one had seriously thought that the Russians or Chinese would start WW3 on Earth by attempting to take Mars for themselves. For one thing, there simply was not enough on Mars to warrant such an action, was there?

When the scientists and administrators of NASA could not contact Mars One via their laser communications unit, they were also very worried, the only answer they had come up with was that their bases on Mars were under attack from an unknown enemy. As for Mars Two, it was currently hidden beneath a Martian sandstorm, therefore, contact with its Laser communications unit was impossible. Fortunately, the other nations who had bases on Mars thought that the answer to the problem had to be somewhere in space, so Earth was not yet heading towards WW3.

**********

One day passed in which neither Earth, nor Mars, could figure out what was wrong with their communications systems. In space, the large space Ark was just approaching the planet Mars, the crew and colonists were waiting for the next stage of the invasion to happen. Commander Bramzs knew that he had no choice but to move ahead with his attack on the people of Earth, his pushed his feelings of self-hatred deep within himself, if he did not order it then he would be relieved of his rank and Artegon would take over, and he had no feelings for anyone but himself.

"Demi-Major Briestz, it is time to move on to the next part of our plan. To cause fear and stress amongst all off the mammals on the third planet and their off-world bases, only then will our Slave weapon aboard the Ark function properly." Bramzs ordered. "Load the twenty Silencer drones aboard the freighter Swiftsure, you are to take the drones to the vicinity of the third planet. You will launch the drones 4084.6 miles apart. They are powered up when the red slide switch set above the folded solar panels is pushed across to the power indicator. You will then have ten minutes to launch them. Once the solar panels unfurl, they are pre-set to enter in to an orbit at a height of 26000 miles above the planet's surface. Once in position, they will commence to jam all radio communications emanating from or around the planet. When you have launched all of the drones Demi-Major, you will then return to the Ark as we may need you to crew the Annihilator."

"Yes, Exulted Commander." Briestz replied and then he turned and headed towards the crews' quarters where he went in search of the rest of his crew.

Finding his crew playing or watching a game of cards, he took them down to the large hanger bay. Here he found a team of Reptoids busy loading the twenty tubular Silencer drones in to the hold of the Swiftsure, for Artegon had spoken to the cargo supervisor in the bay and told him to commence loading the drones. The drones were loaded using a special vehicle which had two arms to pick up the drones and lay them carefully within the freighter's hold. As the drones were large and bulky, it took the best part of seven hours to complete the loading and then to launch the freighter.

A day later and the Swiftsure reached the vicinity of Earth, then came the launch of each of the drones, once again using a special launching vehicle. After ten hours, which passed slowly, a tired crew closed the hanger door and returned to their flight stations, for now Briestz had to make a fast return to the Ark, partly in case he was needed again but mainly to ensure that the Swiftsure was not spotted by the mammals on Earth.

The next morning and a number of the satellites in orbit around Earth stopped working, commencing with the satellites above the western hemisphere which were quickly followed by the ones in the east, once again only static was heard. Fortunately, a number of the satellites employed laser technology to send their data back to Earth, so they were still operating. Unfortunately, they were out of touch with some of the bases on the Moon, of which there were many, for an ever-growing number of bases had sprung up over the last ten years. However, they were not out of touch with the American Alpha base, which also had a laser communication system as well as a conventional radio communications centre, and which they used when weather permitted them to talk to Earth, which was mainly NASA at the Kennedy Space Center.

**********

When the Reptoid Commander, Hierz Bramzs heard than more than a few of the satellites were still communicating with Earth, he knew that as on Mars, he would have to act. Therefore, he revised the next part of his plan, they would have to deploy the Annihilator. Its original mission was to journey to the third planet and destroy their space stations and the mammal's space telescopes, for they could be used to search for them. As for any of their satellites using the laser technology, they would have to be temporarily disabled. He scowled, for according to the report only just published by the scientists on the planet Reptoid, the mammals should have been unable to develop any technology as sophisticated as the laser communications technology. They had thought that using their Silencer drones would have been enough to stop all radio transmissions on and around the mammals' planet, but unfortunately, it did not work against laser technology. But then, the fact that the humans had advanced enough to send manned vessels in to space had not been anticipated, their data regarding this species was so very much out of date. Bramzs sighed and once again called for Briestz, who had just arrived back at the Ark.

"Demi-Major Briestz, I have had to rethink our strategy, you will immediately take the fast attack ship Annihilator to the planet of the mammals. Once there you will destroy all of their space stations and their space telescopes. As for any of their satellites using the laser technology, I want you to temporarily disable them by spraying their solar panels with the reflective substance Ztyonal. Ztyonal will prevent any sunlight getting through to their solar panels until we spray them with the anti-Ztyonal. When you carry out your attack, ensure that you do not destroy or damage any of our Silencer drones, or the mammals' satellites that are not using the laser technology for we will not be able to replace the former or utilise the latter when we carry out our main attack."

"Exalted Commander, should I also take out the American moon base?"

Bramzs looked at the Demi-Major, Briestz, he thought him still the same violent bully that he had always been, but he would not be without him, he was the sort to win battles, but it did not mean that he had to like the officer. The first hint of an altercation amongst the colonists and Briestz wanted to be in the midst of it, kicking, maiming or just plain humiliating both his comrades and his opponents.

"No, Demi-Major, we do not know how far their defensive and attack capabilities have changed, they are obviously further advanced than our leaders had ever thought possible. Before we attack their military bases, I want to know just how far they have advanced, just how capable they now are. I can ill afford the loss of the Annihilator, if you subsequently found out that they not only could detect it but destroy it as well." Bramzs replied, adding. "We have finished our epic journey across the stars, a delay of a week or so is nothing to a race such as ours. Let our researchers look in to their scientific advances, then when we are ready, we will enslave their lowly kind using our Slave weapon."

'Allow them to live free for a little longer', Bramzs thought, 'free until our more advanced civilisation arrived to murder or enslave them.'

The Reptoids would use their Slave weapon to force the people of Earth to go willingly to their deaths by the tens of million worldwide each of their weeks. Once dead, the zombie-like authorities would have the carcases put in to one of the many incinerators around the planet and burnt. Nations would also be forced in to terrible bloody wars against their neighbours, although they would not be allowed to use nuclear or biological weapons, for that would poison the planet for the Reptoids. The Slave weapon would also stop the population of Earth from reproducing, until their numbers were sufficiently reduced, the Reptoids would assist this de-population by farming the survivors for food."

The Slave weapon of the Reptoids was too large to be fitted in to a drone or even a small spaceship, which was why they only had a limited number of the weapons. One was fitted in to the Ark and there were two smaller models that, if necessary, could be installed in to two of their transport vessels, although it would mean that the vessel would not be able to transport many of their troopers. The one on the Ark would make use of the existing satellites in orbit around the Earth, which would transmit its terrible signal down to the surface of a planet where it would make use of the computers, televisions, smart phones and radios that were operating at the time. It could also be used in a mode referred to as the open mode, when the victims did not possess modern technology. Then it would be transmitted through the air at its intended victims and this mode was the most potent, even penetrating thick walls.

**********

The commander's words had worried Briestz, if they had indeed progressed far enough to be a threat, would they not retaliate as soon as he began to destroy their space stations and their telescopes. Even so, he had been given an order, and to refuse it would see him charged with mutiny, he had no option other than to obey the order. He once again collected his crew and they reported back to the hanger deck where their vessel was waiting for them. One day later and the fast attack ship Annihilator was approaching Earth, Briestz turned to his 2nd in command, Hanz Poll, and said partly in jest.

"Hans, keep a look out for the aliens, Commander Bramzs seems to believe that they are an advanced species of mammals."

This remark at the expense of their commander and the aliens was met with laughter from his bridge crew and Briestz smiled. He then turned to the main computer, it was situated in front of his command chair, and he said.

"Computer, locate and destroy any space stations and alien space telescopes using the plasma cannon on the single attack program. Computer, there are twenty Silencer drones amongst them, our own space telescope and the alien satellites, ensure that you do not take them out as well,"

"I have set the single attack program in to operation Demi Major." The computer reported back. "The position of each Silencer drone, our space telescope and the alien satellites will be noted, they will not be destroyed, however, this will mean that the operation will take longer."

"Acknowledged computer, proceed as per your instructions." Briestz ordered.

Immediately the vessel's plasma cannon charged up, moments later the weapon fired the first narrow beam plasma bolt.

On board the American Gateway space station that was the half way point for vessels heading to the Moon, the crew were initially oblivious of the presence of the Annihilator. That lasted until they saw their latest space telescope destroyed by a narrow beam of energy coming from the previously undetected alien vessel. Then panic filled the hearts of them as they saw the vessel approach the space station. Commander Dickinson rushed to their communications centre.

"Attacking vessel, stop firing, we are a manned space station, please stop now, what on earth do you think you are doing, this is an act of war!" He cried out in fear.

It was then that the Annihilator's main computer targeted the space station and the arriving Orion shuttle from Earth, whose commander was attempting to turn away from the attacking vessel. The crew of both never saw the energy beams that hit one of them and then the other, it moved too fast, moments after the attack, all that remained of them was more space debris, nothing else. Briestz had heard the pleas coming from Dickinson and smiled as he watched the destruction of the space station. The main computer did not smile, it couldn't, it just continued its destruction of the other space stations and telescopes in orbit around Earth above the western hemisphere of the planet.

**********

The partial communications' blackout that had resulted from the initial attack by the Silencer drones was now accompanied by the skies above Earth being lit up by narrow beams of light, and then one by one the remaining space stations and telescopes in Earth orbit were destroyed.

**********

With that part of the mission completed, Briestz now had one of his men operate one of their small cargo chariots, one that had been adapted during their journey to Earth to carry a large barrel of Ztyonal with a dispenser attached to it. His task, to be taken to any laser operated satellite and then to manually spray its solar panels with Ztyonal. This part of the mission was slow and laborious, and the operator had to be changed five times before they had treated all of the satellites that used the laser technology. His crew exhausted, and he mentally so, from constantly searching space for the vessels of Earth that Bramzs thought might be armed with energy weapons. He had not sighted one spaceship, if they had any more ships, other than the unarmed shuttle that he had destroyed, they were keeping a low profile.

**********

The military around the world were quickly put under a war footing, each country looking at their enemies, it was a wonder that a nuclear holocaust did not immediately happen. Thankfully, the land-lines still operated and all sides quickly learned that missiles were not falling and vast armies were not invading. The countries' embassies had also acted fast, they soon confirmed to their governments that their hosts too were incapable of communicating in any way other than by using their land lines. Even so, with their spy satellites not sending their ever-constant stream of information, it had been a close thing. Each side watched their radar screens, sent up long range AWACS aircraft to keep a check on what the enemy was doing, and prayed that Armageddon was not about to happen. The UN security council met and it was soon decided that as Mars had gone off the air first, and in a similar fashion, they could be looking at an alien attack from another planetary system, funnily, this made everyone feel better. The following day communication by even local stations, which did not make use of any of the satellites, was no longer possible, once again only static was heard, however, at least the landlines still operated, after a fashion, for even they crackled when in use. This meant that air travel, except for the military, was no longer possible, and it was now that the people really began to panic. The governments around the world gave thought to the idea of banning the newspapers from printing anything about the possibility of an attack on the Earth, but then, the internet still worked and it was full of such speculation, of little green men, of an alien attack. Leaders across the world were speaking to their people, assuring them that there was no need to panic, they had everything in hand. This helped to calm some of the people, however, as panic buying was happening across the world, it showed just how much the politicians were trusted, globally.

**********

The alien spaceship, Annihilator, turned back towards the Ark, its present mission completed, Briestz did not want to chance being detected and having to evade the mammal's angry reaction to his presence. The Earth spaceships were Neolithic when compared to his fast attack vessel, but who knew what punch their weapons might carry, he for one did not want to risk finding out the painful way. The mammal's main problem would be detecting his stealth vessel, even his people had not found a way that did not in turn allow the Annihilator to detect and destroy them. The scientists aboard the Ark were close to finding out the answer to one of Briestz's questions, what level of technology did the mammals possess, and the answer scared the Reptoids.

**********

The administrator of NASA, James Bartlett, had been sitting at his desk at the Kennedy Space Center when the last of the space stations, the Indian one, had been destroyed, and it was soon after that President Cooper contacted him.

"James, we need to sort this problem out, even though all the space faring nations have been attacked, it would not take much to start WW3. Tell me, is the Discovery ready for an emergency mission to Mars and maybe beyond, because the initial attack happened on or around that planet?" The president asked and then went on to say. "I ask this James, because I believe that our enemy could well turn out to be extra-terrestrial. I have been up all night thinking about it and no other scenario makes any sense." The president declared. "Maybe sending the Discovery to Mars will pull the nuclear powers together and diffuse things, because trust is quickly disappearing around the world. India blames Pakistan, Russia and China blame us and Europe, not knowing who to blame, trusts no one, not even their fellow nations."

"Mr President, as you know, we have been preparing the Discovery for a shakedown cruise, to Venus and back, in preparation to sending her to Jupiter. We could cancel all of that and bring its departure date forward, if they work 24 hours a day the Discovery could be made ready within two days." Bartlett said uneasily. "Mr President, if you order us to send her to Mars, you do realise that it could turn out to be a one-way mission, if we are under attack from an alien race, we would be asking the crew to risk their lives."

"I realise that James, however, we must risk it, they must risk it. It is either that or wait for the next part of the alien plan to happen, maybe a direct attack upon our cities from outer space. At least if we armed the Discovery, even if we did not tell anyone, the crew would be able to defend themselves." The president argued, unsuccessfully.

"Against a race that is able to travel between the stars, because we are not under attack from Martians or a tenth planet within our solar system. If we are indeed under attack by, it would not be stretching the facts to say that they probably possess hyper drive and the weapons that go with a more technologically advanced race than any here on Earth." Bartlett replied forcefully.

"James, we have no other option open to us, send the Discovery to Mars, and if necessary, beyond. They must leave in 48 hours; their mission is to find and if necessary, to destroy whatever is causing the jamming to our radio communications. Put the two Hypersonic nuclear armed missiles aboard the Discovery and the means to launch them. If the little green men will listen to reason, fine, if not they have my permission to nuke the bastards. James, you also have my permission to commandeer whatever is necessary to save Mankind, get on with it, no more arguments James, you have your orders, obey them."

With that the president rang off. Bartlett did not think that it was as simple as that, for one thing, would they be able to get close enough to launch their missiles, and if they did would not the aliens simply destroy the missiles in flight using an energy weapon of sorts, the same one that had destroyed the space stations and telescopes in orbit around Earth? However, Bartlett knew that he had to obey the order to launch the Discovery, as the president had asked, what other option was open to Earth, apart from prayer.

**********

Bartlett immediately made use of their laser communications system and put a call in to Commander Charles Brannigan of the Space corps and the new commander of the main US Moon base, which for some reason the aliens had decided not to attack. The base was in the Marius hills, built within lava tubes and chambers beneath the surface of the moon and sheltered from the radiation of the sun and meteorite impacts. Within them, you were also sheltered from the vast temperature difference that afflict anyone who is upon the surface of the moon, the temperature ranging from plus 106 to minus 183°celsius.

On Moon base, the laser communications system was within the base's command centre, feet away from Brannigan's office. He was immediately called when the operator heard that James Bartlett was on the other end of the line.

"Charles, James Bartlett, this call is for your ears only, so please put your headphones on and scramble the call."

Brannigan frowned, the operator immediately handed over his headset and moved away from the communications system. All around him people looked across expectantly, and Brannigan pressed the scrambler button on the top of the laser communications system and said.

"Okay, James, I am alone as I can ever be here in the command centre, I have scrambled the call, what have the powers that be decided to do about the communications blackout and the attack on our space stations and telescopes?"

"The president has ordered that the Discovery is to leave within the next 48 hours, its mission, to travel to Mars, to find out if our people are alive, however, that will only be part of their mission. Their main mission is to find those responsible for the attack on our people and hardware and to stop them by any means possible. To that end Charles, you are to load the two nuclear armed missiles on to the Discovery, they have the president's permission to use them. I would put it in writing and send it on the next shuttle, however, we simply do not have the time, therefore, your recording of this call should be enough to cover you and them. When and if they discover those behind the attack, Captain Palmer will have to decide what action to take, as he will not have the option of calling home, the delay could kill him and his crew. Charles, I advise him to fire first and talk later, because our enemy has not displayed any signs of possessing any humanity, whatever decision he makes, I will back it."

Charles Brannigan was quiet for a long moment, then he said.

"You suspect that those behind the attack are not the Russians or the Chinese, but an extra-terrestrial one, correct?"

"Correct, Charles. I know that this mission could end up with the destruction of the Discovery and the death of her crew, however, the president feels, and I agree, that to wait until the little green men come knocking on our front door could be fatal for Mankind. You can offer them the chance to stay home, but the Discover must leave within 48 hours with a crew, so if replacements are not available, you will have to coerce the present crew in to agreeing to go, whatever dangers might be waiting for them out there."

**********

Other senior personnel of NASA also assumed that as the problem started out in space, that Earth was actually under attack from an alien intelligence from another planetary system but now based on Mars or beyond. They were relieved when James Bartlett finally revealed the subject of his talk with the president and the president's orders. He then gave his orders to them on how they were to proceed.

"Keep everything that I have told you a secret, as well as what I am about to order you to do."

Bartlett first turned to Reece Malcomb, the Director of Communications. "Sam, this part will concern you more than anyone. We will need to follow the Discovery using the most powerful telescopes available to us, so that we will know its status at any time. Thankfully, the Discovery has a laser communications system and will be able to keep in contact with Earth, weather permitting, either with a station in the US or one of our units overseas. You will have to ensure that we have sufficient Laser communication systems available to us around the world, or on the Moon, so as to ensure that we are in contact with the Discovery at all times. You have the president's permission to use the air force to transport the means to any of our overseas bases. As I said, the Discovery leaves in 48 hours' time, all of the systems must be up and running before then."

Bartlett then turned back to the others. "Reece will probably require some help, please assist him if he asks for help. Other than that, listen in on all channels available to you, who knows how an alien will attempt to communicate with us, because there is always a chance that the aliens will attempt to contact us before they launch their main attack."

He then spoke to his deputy administrator.

"Richard, we need to search the space around Earth, to find any of the alien's vessels in orbit around the Earth, assuming they are there to find. I want you to head the search, use all of our telescopes and tracking systems available and are not being used by Reece. Find them, if they are there to be found, only then can we begin to take the fight to them."

**********

NASA had completed its tests on its new deep space research vessel, the Discovery, it had been built to take Mankind to Jupiter, Saturn and beyond. The power that would give its Ion drive engines the necessary power, the engines the latest design in advanced propulsion, a helium 3 fusion reactor which gave the vessel a maximum speed of 45,000 mph. Now the Discovery was needed for another mission, to save human civilisation against a possible extra-terrestrial one. It would be a tall order for the team of eight men and women who had been in training at Moon base for eight weeks on board the Discovery. They had each trained in the astronaut program for an initial two years, before moving to the Discovery program where they trained for two more years prior to their move to the Moon. The commander of the team was Captain Samuel Palmer, initially of the USAF before joining the Space corps, his crew were Commander David Brightly of the US Navy and then the Space corps, Geologist Sarah Shaw, Biologist Joseph Wei, Physicist Noah Abrams, Doctor Emily Smythe-Jones, their doctor of medicine and finally two NASA engineers, Joel Goldstein and Tomas Martinez. Apart from Samuel Palmer and David Brightly, they were not trained for war, but they were all trained to take the Discovery in to space.

Moon Commander Charles Brannigan called the Discovery crew in to the galley, the only large area in the base that would allow him to speak to them in private, his own office being on the small side. A security man had been posted outside to stop anyone else trying to enter the galley, this meeting was initially only for the ears of the crew of the Discovery. The new mission that he was sending them on was, he knew, highly dangerous, and with little chance of their surviving it, but Brannigan agreed with his superiors, that Earth had no option other than to order them to lift off and to search for the alien spaceship or ships.

He looked at the six Americans, one Israeli and one English woman standing before him.

"People, your original mission is scrubbed for the moment, your new mission is strictly a volunteer one. I will outline it for you now, later we can talk more about it." Brannigan said and after the others acknowledged this, he explained their new mission.

"Following the jamming of our communications, the murderous attack earlier today on our space stations and then the subsequent destruction of our space telescopes in Earth orbit, you are off to Mars on a search and destroy mission. The reason that you are going to Mars is that this is where our enemy started their attack upon us, and the president and his advisors believe that our enemy may have set up their main base in the vicinity of the red planet. On arrival, you are first to ensure that our people on Mars are alive and well, however, your main mission will be to find whoever is responsible for the attacks on us and to stop them, if possible." Brannigan said with a grim smile and here he had to break off the briefing as he waved down the multitude of questions that were launched at him by the Discovery crew.

"I will answer all of your questions later, for the moment just listen. Okay?" he said interrupting the flow of questions, and when they all agreed, he continued with the briefing.

"Once you lift off from the Moon, you will not attempt to communicate with Earth, nor with us here at Moon base. You are only to contact us if you have vital information that will help us in our war with our unknown enemy, for to do so, we believe, could bring about an attack upon you. All communications, when they are made, will be via the laser communication unit that you have on board, which is more secure in any case. You depart in two Earth days; you should reach Mars in a further 39 days. Be on the lookout for the vessel that destroyed our space stations, you will have two nuclear Hypersonic missiles on board, if necessary, use one against the monsters in that attack vessel." Brannigan stopped his briefing here when he heard a gasp of surprise come from Emily.

"They started it Emily, if you get the chance then you can revenge our dead people." Brannigan said grimly and then continued with his address.

"The missiles have been put in to your hanger bay, the four two-man chariots have been pushed to the rear of the bay, this may make using them difficult but you will have to put up with that. When you go back aboard your vessel, you will find that our engineers are installing a new console on to your bridge, this controls the two nuclear armed missiles. You will be trained on the arming and launching of the devices all day tomorrow, I am sorry but we cannot give you any longer. I repeat, your departure is now less than two days away, that soon because our civilisation is in danger from an enemy that does not shirk from launching an unprovoked attack against unarmed people. Due to our lack of knowledge concerning the enemy, we must guess what their intentions are, I believe they are invasion and the destruction of Mankind. Why else launch this unprovoked attack against Earth and its people."

The Discovery crew looked grim and a little shell-shocked, but Brannigan had expected this as he continued with his briefing.

"We must assume that they are more advanced than us, technologically speaking, and have faster more manoeuvrable ships with probably more advanced weaponry, so I advise you to fire first and offer greetings later. However, the choice is yours Captain, but remember the way they greeted our space stations and the shuttle."

This brought some grim smiles his way but he ignored them and continued.

"We cannot really afford even the two-day delay, but for the moment you are our only hope, so everything is being double checked by our engineers between now and lift off. If any of you decide that you would rather stay home to look after your families, I will understand. You have until tomorrow morning to notify me, no later or it will make it difficult to find any suitable replacements."

Suitable replacements for the Discovery were in short supply. Yes, they had a back-up crew, but they were not yet fully trained. The back-up crew had all gone down with a nasty bout of influenza, meaning they were weeks behind in their training and any mistakes on this voyage could be fatal, for their crew and for Earth. Brannigan now continued with his briefing.

"As I said earlier, it has been assumed that the enemy vessels are either on Mars, or on its moons, or in orbit around Mars. When you arrive in the neighbourhood, you are to attempt contact with Mars One or one of the other bases, if you can, they may be able to give you some information regarding our enemy. Mars One does have a second laser communications system aboard their Return Home ship. However, they will not want to use it for fear of a further attack, not until help arrives to protect them. Which could be why we have not heard from them since they went off the air."

Both he and the Discovery crew could think of another reason, but no one wanted to dwell too long upon it. Brannigan continued with the briefing.

"Our telescopes here on the moon and those on Earth are searching space for even a trace of our enemy's fleet. When we find it, and be assured people, we will find them, we will home you on to them. I will not repeat my advice to you, instead I will use the president's own words, you must Nuke the bastards." Brannigan stopped here for a moment to let what he had said sink in, the phrase using peaceful means if possible having been deleted from the mission briefing.

"The president called me personally just 30 minutes before this briefing began, he wants me to ensure that you understand how important he feels this mission is. He wants you to understand that you cannot fail in this mission, even if it means all of your deaths, I am sorry but we will not get another shot at this. A Space Launch System rocket will launch in one week's time from the Kennedy Space Center. It will be carrying a stretched Orion cargo vessel, and if you are successful, but short of fuel, oxygen or stores, we will arrange for it to meet you wherever you are in space and with the necessary stores to see you home."

He ended the meeting by saying.

"I will leave you to talk about your new mission, tomorrow morning I will answer any questions that you have. Tomorrow, you will all move in to your new quarters aboard the Discovery, assuming that you have decided to answer your country's call to arms, whether it be the United States of America, Israel, or the UK."

This was sheer blackmail, he knew that it would now be difficult for any of them to back out, but their countries' need for them to go to war was great, he was just underlining this.

**********

When they were alone, Sam smiled at the other members of the crew; in the eight weeks that they had been together on the Moon, following the two years when they trained together on and off, either on Earth or at the American space station, they had become firm friends.

"Before anybody else says it, two missiles, no matter how powerful, may not be enough. We certainly will not be allowed the luxury of a miss with either of them, and if the aliens have more than two vessels, then we will be in deep trouble." Sam said.

He had put their own thoughts in to words and there were seven worried faces looking at him and so he immediately made his second thought known before anyone revealed their doubts and fears.

"Having said that and acknowledged the dangers facing us on this mission, I will be going on this mission, to back-out and leave you or our replacements to face the danger without me is not acceptable, to me."

This statement cleared away some of the fear on the faces looking at him and he thought that he should say more about their mission before they took the next few hours to consider their own position.

"Let me say this, yes, it will be very dangerous, following the attack on the space stations and the telescopes there can be no doubting that. We are about to be invaded by a very advanced and immoral race, but they will find that we are an intelligent race, one that is courageous, stubborn and willing to die for the people of Earth. Our first task is to find out more about them, that is really what our mission is about, hitting back at them would be great, but we must remember that their attack vessel used an advanced energy weapon and then escaped at a speed that makes the Discovery look like a snail. Having said that, we do have the most modern spaceship available to Earth, we, its crew, are the best, if the aliens give us so much as an inch, I intend to hit them hard. Any data that we can send back to Earth will make it harder for them to repeat their attack without incurring casualties. I cannot say more, not until we find out more about their ships and numbers."

Commander David Brightly stepped forward, as the second in command he felt that it was his duty to the other members of the crew to speak now and so, he said his piece.

"You have said it all Sam, and at least the Discovery has been fitted with what they would call an afterburner on a jet aircraft, because even though she is a research vessel, the government was worried back in her planning stage about our non-alien enemies. Anyway, I am also in, where you motley bunch go, I go."

The 'afterburner' could only be used for a short period of time, as it not only ate in to their fuel supply, if used over a long period of time it would destroy their engine, even so, it could be useful in times of crisis.

Sarah Shaw now stepped forward, she smiled at her friends and said.

"You guys need someone to keep you in hand, to remind you why we will be out there, that someone is me, okay?"

The others all smiled at her and replied. "Okay." And then it was the turn of Joseph Wei, all he said was. "Agreed, I am in too, however, when we return to Earth, I am going to see a shrink, there must be something really wrong with my brain for agreeing to go on this mission."

Both Sarah and Joseph had also been trained by NASA in astronavigation and piloting the Defender, should the need arise, so they could be termed as volunteer members of the Space Corps who would be invaluable in the coming weeks as they could spell Sam and David.

These sentiments were echoed by the remainder of the crew, Noah Abrams, Emily Smythe-Jones, Joel Goldstein and finally Tomas Martinez, they had all pledged to be aboard the Discovery when it set off on its maiden voyage, to Mars. Death before dishonour.

It was late and so they all turned in, but even though they were tired, sleep was hard to come by, their thoughts and fears for the future kept them awake until the early hours. Come six the following morning, they had all returned to the galley, one by one, and poured out a coffee or a cup of tea and had a quiet breakfast, when Brannigan arrived, he found that they had already packed their limited personal items and were ready to move in to their quarters aboard the Deep Space Research vessel Discovery. When told of their decision to go to Mars, he said.

"I want to thank you all for agreeing to go on this mission, you are heroes now, whatever happens out there in space, and I salute you."

Brannigan did just that, he saluted them, and then led the way through Moon base, passed a quiet but respectful Moon base personnel who had somehow learned of their mission. All of them said a quiet prayer for the brave crew of the Discovery, asking their god to watch over them and return them to their families. The crew arrived at an airlock, it was attached, via a flexible tunnel to the main airlock on the Discovery. Minutes later and they were standing on the deck of their new home. It was full of people checking every inch, every nut and every connection, so after dumping their bags on their beds, they were taken back in to the bridge for their first sight of the new console. When they had all looked down at the console that controlled such terrible weapons, they were led in to the hanger bay to look at the two nuclear Hypersonic missiles. The US military had told those who knew about them that they were intended for use against any asteroid that posed a threat to Earth. That could have been the reason for them being sent to the moon, but the cynics amongst the people at Moon base thought otherwise.

Stores were still being loaded aboard the Discovery even as they looked at the two nuclear armed missiles, with more than one of them shuddering at the prospect of journeying through space with such terrible devices for company. They then returned to the bridge where they were all shown how to launch the missiles in to space, when Sam gave the order. As the console on the bridge did most of the computational work, launching the devices was simple. First, they powered up the system and armed the missile, then the hanger bay was cleared of personnel, it was then depressurized and when this had been done, the hanger bay doors were opened. All that remained for them to do was to lock the missile on to its target and press the launch button. They practiced on this console for hours before their instructor was satisfied that they were all fully trained in its use.

The next 30 hours passed quickly, not one of the crew changed their minds about going on the mission, yes, they knew the risks to their lives, but they also knew the danger that faced Mankind, and of course to their families and friends. A battery of the latest version of the Hypersonic cruise missile suddenly arrived at the Moon aboard a fast Orion Shuttle. It was quickly installed in the hanger bay, to give them the extra fire power that they obviously needed. This would allow them to save the nuclear armed missiles for use against a major target, if there was any other kind on this mission. The space inside the hanger bay was now becoming limited, but the Discovery was now a ship of war, not a research vessel. These missiles were also launched using their new console, they just had to designate which missile they wanted to fire.

Four hours prior to lift-off, the engineers and scientists on Moon base were still hard at work checking out every part of the Discovery. One person not involved in this exhausting task, where sleep was in such short supply, was Roy Jennings. He was an English astronomer working at the UK telescope housed within a small base on the far side of the Moon, within the Hertzsprung crater. He was the person to discover the asteroid, which was in a geostationary orbit behind Mars. It was mostly hidden behind the planet, but even advanced aliens make mistakes and the helmsman was forced to correct their course to get out of the way of Phobos, the larger of the two moons in orbit around Mars. In doing so he inadvertently showed the asteroid to Jennings, who photographed it and recorded its hurried movement back behind Mars. Jennings called Charles Brannigan, rather than attempt to contact the UK space agency, because the UK did not have a spaceship about to embark on a very dangerous mission to the depths of their solar system. Calls between the various bases on the Moon were still possible and Jennings scrambled this one.

"Charles, Roy Jennings at the Hertzsprung crater observatory, scramble this call please."

Puzzled, Brannigan pressed a button on his phone then asked quizzically. "Scrambled, Roy, what have you got that requires this level of security?"

"An asteroid that can suddenly go in to reverse Charles, interested?"

"Very much so Roy, please keep a watch on the area and let me know if you notice anything else, such as the vessel that murdered everyone aboard our space stations and then took out all of our telescopes in Earth orbit. By the way was it the western or eastern rim?"

"The western rim Charles, and it was large, I reckon it could be as much as one mile in diameter, I will send you a photograph of it."

"Please do Roy, Earth will want to see your photograph of the aliens. One mile, that is a big ship Roy, too big to house just one attack craft."

"I was thinking about a space ark Charles, if so, how long before they put phase 2 in to operation?"

"Phase 2?"

"The invasion of Earth, that is what we could be facing Charles, if this does not unite the world, then nothing will."

Brannigan immediately contacted NASA using his laser communications system and he spoke to James Bartlett.

"James, Charles Brannigan here, you had better scramble this call."

"It's scrambled Charles, tell me, what do you have?"

I have some good news for you, The British astronomer Roy Jennings has just told me about an asteroid that can go in to reverse, he saw it behind the western rim of Mars, it has to be the alien mothership, or maybe even a space ark, because he estimated its size as one mile in diameter. He is sending me a copy of his photograph, when I receive it, I will send it across to you via our laser communications centre."

"Great news, but that is one large spaceship Charles." He said sounding impressed and a little worried. "At least the Discovery will have a nice fat juicy target to aim the nukes at, if they are allowed to get that close. I will have the world's telescopes keep a watch on Mars, up until now they have been spending most of their time scanning space in search of any alien vessel in orbit or approaching Earth. one mile in diameter, Charles, it could well be that we are about to be invaded."

"That is what Roy feared and if so, will the world unite to defend all of Earth and not just their own small parts of it?" Brannigan replied grimly. "What I want to know is why they are skulking around Mars, are they worried about something and if so what?

"I would not think so Charles, more likely they are taking out our eyes and ears first, in which case, Roy Jennings could be right Charles. I will inform the president, the politicians are going to have to earn their pay at last, unite or we all go under."

Bartlett first updated the president and then he called the observatory on the summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. He updated them on their findings and had them mount a watch on the rims of Mars. He then spoke to the other observatories around the world, those actively searching for the alien spaceship, asking them to arrange a worldwide watch on both the rims of Mars, but the western rim in particular.

Brannigan finally found the time to speak to the Discovery crew, this he did in person, not trusting the security problems relating to the radio. He found them going through the final systems check in their preparations to lift off.

"You leave in just thirty-five minutes and now I can tell you that an alien mothership has been spotted, it is an asteroid. It is currently hiding behind Mars, it's a big bastard, we believe it to be one mile in diameter, therefore, there is a distinct possibility that it just might be a space ark. This of course reinforces the theory that the Earth is about to be invaded, if so, the asteroid could be the first of many such vessels. I am sorry folks; this increases the pressure on you to succeed."

"But why are they waiting, they have made their first moves, why wait for us to find them and retaliate?" Sarah Shaw asked.

"The longer they wait Sarah, the better chance there is of the Discovery getting near enough to blast them back to their own solar system. However, you are correct, why are they waiting. Well your guess is as good as anyone's right now. In fact, after you leave here in under twenty-five minutes, your guesses will be the only ones that matter to your mission. I had better go, or risk being an extra crew member. Good luck to you all, your quarters at Moon base will be ready for you when you return."

With that Charles Brannigan left the Discovery and hurried along the transfer tunnel and back to the small command centre of Moon base.

**********

The Discovery was massive compared to the previous space vessels of Earth. It was shaped much like a grain silo, 40 feet in diameter, but with a large bulge at the rear, and 400 feet long. Built not to travel through a planet's atmosphere, such as the one around Earth, although it would be fine on Mars, whose atmosphere was almost negligible. It would be able to land there on eight retractable legs and would lift off using its powerful vertical boosters that were also used to slow its landing speed down. The engineering department, split in to two levels, was at the rear of the vessel, its main power source being a helium 3 fusion reactor, was on the upper level, the two engines were on the lower level. The bulge was to give the extra space that was required for the reactor. The rear middle section of the vessel comprised of three levels, levels one and three were used for storage, level two was for its spacious hanger deck. The forward middle section also comprised of three levels, levels one and two were where the four laboratories were located, for this had been built as a research vessel, in level three there was another hold plus a secondary airlock. The forward section comprised again of three levels, it had the accommodation area on levels two and three, for the crew of eight, each had a cramped cabin that held their bed, their few clothes and a mini shower cubicle. The galley and clinic were on level two and on level three there was a small gymnasium fitted out with everything to keep as many of their muscles strong as was possible. The upper level housed the main airlock, the environmental department and the small bridge. Within the bridge was the pilot's seat, used by Sam, computers lined the two sides of the area, where David Brightly worked. The scientists were in their laboratories, the doctor was in her clinic and Noah Abrams and Tomas Martinez were in the engineering department in the rear section of the vessel. The vessel was twin hulled to help protect against hull breaches. A newly developed silica ceramic tile, an invention by a British scientist, covered all sections of the outer hull to prevent radiation from penetrating the hull. The vessel's water tanks were behind the walls of the accommodation area and these gave added protection to the crew against the sun's radiation or cosmic radiation, should it become necessary. The trash accumulated during the voyage was put in to plastic bags in the shape of tiles and used to line the walls of the science laboratories. The Discovery also carried four two-person space chariots, they were designed to travel ship to space station, or to an asteroid or a moonlet or even across the surface of the Moon and they were housed within the hanger bay. They could also be used to save the lives of any member of the crew who floated away from the vessel during a space walk along the outer hull of the vessel.

The time for the start of their mission finally arrived, Sam detached the Discovery from the flexible access tunnel, which retracted in to Moon base. He then pressed the ignition app for the vertical boosters on his computer and the crew heard and then felt the boosters fire, slowly the massive spaceship moved away from the Moon's surface, there was no backing out now, they were on their way to Mars and the danger that would probably accompany their journey every second on this maiden flight of the warship Discovery. They were 100 feet above the surface of the Moon when Sam engaged the main engine, the Discovery slowly moved forward. The massive spaceship soon picked up speed, reaching it maximum speed of 45000 mph, after accelerating for 24 long hours. Sam then cut the Discovery's massive engine, for they planned to coast most of the way to Mars. This meant that they would be weightless, to combat this they wore weighted clothes, magnetic boots and they all worked out without exception, using the vessels small gym. They all needed to be fit when they encountered the enemy, for who knew just what they would be called upon to do.

**********

The Reptoid commander was still young, his father who should have been commanding the invasion of Earth had died prematurely. He looked about him, the command crew were waiting his order to move the Ark towards Earth to destroy its military, something though told him to hold off, an unknown danger waited for them there, and anyway, tomorrow was an equally good day to die.

Mystra Artegon felt only contempt for his commander, he thought that he should have been appointed commander of the Ark when the previous commander had died, but as Bramzs was of age, tradition gave it to the son of the Riga Bramzs. Why didn't the new commander order the Ark to move rapidly towards their new home world, the mammals, no more than savages, could do nothing against their plasma cannon, their thick stone hull, their speed. When the Annihilator had blasted their pathetic little space stations and telescopes in to space dust, they had done nothing, except to probably cower beneath the ground, just like the small mammals on his home world did when a Reptoid appeared in their vicinity. However, he said nothing of his feelings, or his contempt, for to do so could see him jailed for sedition.

**********

The people at the American Moon base Alpha looked at their large viewing screen, it was set up on the front wall of the base small command area, they watched the Discovery as it slowly moved away from its home base, soon its speed would rise as it moved nearer to its destiny. Some, those who believed in god, prayed, the others wished them luck and also prayed. The future of Mankind could well rest on the eight crew members aboard the Discovery, if they failed the enemy would move towards Earth with renewed courage, believing that the best that Earth possessed had been beaten. They did not realise who they were up against, the American nation and their allies would never surrender.

**********

The people within Mars One were feeling a little anxious, yes, they had the second laser communications system in the Return Home ship, but Lee Masters had reported on the samples that he had taken from the small craterlet, they appeared to have been caused by extreme heat, such as would be the result of a powerful plasma weapon. Of the laser communications system, he had found minute traces of it within the samples. A video meeting of everyone within Mars One, Mars Two, and also the three Mars Cats researching sites some distance away from the two bases, had come to the same conclusion as those on Earth, they were under attack, with few weapons available to them. Michael Patel smiled grimly and said.

"So, we are agreed, we are under attack and with no way to defend ourselves. In which case we had better manufacture some, I want ways to boost whatever lasers we possess so that we can use them as weapons." He then turned to Heinz Muller, their chemist.

"Heinz, I want you to manufacture explosives, we have a few remaining from our mining operations, we need more, and ones with a lot more explosive power would be nice."

He then turned to Akira Sato, the Japanese physicist.

"Akira, work out how to detonate the nuclear generator, but be careful, we do not want it exploding unless our enemy is landing on or near enough to it to destroy them."

Michael now turned to close proximity defence.

"We will need to defend ourselves, there is no doubt about that, we will not be able to go on the offensive, we have neither ships nor the necessary weapons. To this end we will attempt to extend the new tunnel here at Mars One. Mars Two, you had better see how far your lava tube goes down, maybe you should move your stores down there. Also, find some way to hide the airlock between the lava tube and the main section of your base. You guys in the Cats, either head back here or go to Mars Two, both bases have enough supplies to last for a year, so you will not be locked out. Maybe we had better extend our hydroponics units, there is every chance that it will be some time before we see another ship from Earth. I will contact the other bases on Mars, the Russians, the Chinese and the Indians, update them and ask if they have any ideas about what is going on. That is it for now, let`s get working before our enemy shows up."

**********

At the Kennedy Space Center, its people were all busy working, that way they did not have to think about the future, unfortunately they had still not been able to punch a hole through the jamming that prevented radio communication between Earth and the Moon or Mars. They had tried increasing the power to their communications system, but without any success, even the local radio stations were still off the air. Now Doctor Miles Carson, one of their top physicists, was looking at the radiation spectrum to see if they could change the wavelength they broadcast in, and so bypass the jamming. This would mean major changes to all of the radio receivers though and so would not be ideal, nor would it be a quick change.

James Bartlett was thinking about the future though, he was wondering how long their enemy would give them before moving against the planet Earth, in fact, he was another human who was surprised that they had not already done so. This thought made him think about the crew of Discovery, and of the danger that he and the president had put them in.

**********

On board the Discovery, the crew were feeling the stress of not knowing if and when they would be attacked, which they feared must happen sometime during the voyage. The hanger bay had been de-pressurized so that they could quickly react to the sighting of another vessel and launch one of their missiles at it. One of the crew was constantly searching, 24 hours a day, for such a vessel. Captain Samuel Palmer or Commander David Brightly were always on the bridge so that one or both of them could immediately act if such a situation arose, the order to fire first and ask questions later was the order of the day. Sarah Shaw and Joseph Wei were taking turns at piloting the Discovery, to give the others a break. However, their journey was proceeding without an attack, nor a visit, why?

Chapter Two

On to Mars

The Reptoids soon learned through their space telescope that the USA, who they considered to be the strongest of the nations on Earth, had launched a primitive spaceship from the Moon, presumably to investigate the attack upon them. Once it was clear of the Earth and its moon, they watched as the vessel headed out in to space, on a course and speed that would see it finally rendezvous with the planet Mars.

Their scientists were also busy, they were looking through all of the reports compiled by their central computer on the technology reached by the natives of Earth. What they found amazed the Reptoids, the mammals had gained the secret to splitting the atom, and without starting a chain reaction that would destroy the Earth and all of the solar system. This fear had stopped the Reptoids from gaining the enormous power of nuclear fission and then finally nuclear fusion. The mammals also had the knowledge to harness this power to generate electricity and to build powerful nuclear weapons. This was a bonus, they thought, for the Reptoid race had never discovered how to split the atom. This meant that after their victory over the mammals, they too would join the nuclear club. Commander Bramzs was not happy, he looked across at the bronze idol that sat on his desk, it was of his god Mygot, and he thanked it, for obviously Mygot had been behind his decision to wait for more information regarding the mammals before taking the Ark towards the third planet.

The Reptoid scientists, as too did the command crew, realised how lucky they had been that the mammals had not gone to war against their enemies on the surface of the planet, following the Reptoids use of the Silencer drones and then the Annihilator fast attack vessel. Had they used their nuclear weapons to attack their enemies, it would have decimated the planet, and in doing so have made the planet uninhabitable for their own race and meant that the Ark would have had to return to their home world. It was then suggested by the head of security that a nuclear weapon, or weapons, could be aboard the vessel approaching Mars.

Upon hearing about the nuclear weapons and of their use against their fellow mammals, Bramzs felt better about himself, it seemed that the mammals were as blood thirsty as his own race, he would not have to feel guilty now, when he ordered their destruction. However, he was worried about these terrible weapons, for none of them knew what affect the use of a powerful nuclear explosion would have if used against the Ark. He decided to give the mammals something to aim their powerful weapons at, he put the Reptoid freighter Swiftsure in a geo-stationary orbit around Mars with its large, but ancient, communications device, which was attached to the hull, aimed at Earth. The freighter was meant to assist in the transfer of the colonists down to their new home, when the time came, it was unarmed and for this voyage it would not be crewed, Artegon would control its movements from the Ark's control centre. It would act as a decoy, so that the mammals on seeing the device, would use the possible nuclear weapon in their possession in an attempt to destroy it, thinking that it was the cause of their problems. Then he would order the capture of their vessel and then any other weapons aboard the mammal's ship would be theirs to investigate and if possible, duplicate.

Therefore, he ordered the Reptoids to ignore the launch of the human ship, they would take the vessel out when it arrived in the vicinity Mars. By then, the humans would not be in the position to launch a follow up mission, for the Reptoids would move the Ark in to a close orbit around the Earth. Here they would be able to use their Slave weapon to destroy the mammals will to resist, both in their cities and their military bases. However, they did have the Annihilator return to shadow the earth vessel, to photograph it in the hope that they could gain an insight in to its capabilities, to scan it for signs of any nuclear weapons.

Two weeks later, the Russians followed by the Chinese launched their own spaceships, fearful that the Americans would capture the alien technology and then use it exclusively against their enemies on Earth. Although their leaders realised that the two vessels were probably on a one-way mission, the launches went ahead in any case. Neither took in to account the danger their crews faced, heading in to space in vessels which were even less suitable than the Discovery to wage war upon an advanced alien race. It was Artegon, the 2nd in command of the Ark, who brought the news to his commander.

"Two more vessels have left Earth and are heading towards us Commander, surely the time has come to capture the American vessel, otherwise, we will be faced with three vessels, and all may be armed with nuclear devices."

Bramzs looked at his junior officer and smiled, then he gave his answer.

"I intend to allow the American vessel to draw near, when they are close enough, they will see our decoy and we will learn just what sort of weapons they possess. As for the other two vessels, they are too far behind to bother about, we will brush them out of the way like bugs, left in minute pieces upon the outer surface of the Ark."

"Commander, can we not at least rid the red planet of the mammals, feast upon their flesh, I have never even tasted such a delicacy?"

"As far as the mammals on the red planet are concerned Mystra, the answer is no. While they are alive, the mammals on the red planet provide a valuable distraction for us, the crew of the approaching spaceship will work to keep them alive, leaving them susceptible to plans devised by us. Later we can all dine upon the mammals."

Artegon had to accept this reply, however, within the Ark, the Reptoid colonists were also getting impatient, they wanted to attack the mammals, now. Their spokesman, Grappon A'Tilla, appeared in the large command centre later in the day.

"We reached this planetary system filled with confidence, we were going to be on the planet as rulers, now we are like timid children, with no idea what to do, except to hide away millions of miles from our chosen planet. When, Commander, will you order the attack?"

Bramzs could not brush First Citizen, Grappon A'Tilla, aside as he had Artegon, A'Tilla was the civilian leader and the male chosen to lead the colony once Bramzs had reduced the mammal civilisation to ruins.

"I am still confident that we will win a new home for our people, there are no doubts in my mind, as long as we use our brains rather than other parts of our bodies. The mammals on the planet are somewhat intelligent, that means we must use our greater intelligence so as not to lose the war through haste, remember they greatly outnumber us. Also, they have been able to split the atom, First Citizen, they have manufactured monstrous weapons of war which they are not afraid to use. Please ask our people to wait for just a little while longer, when the mammals see our decoy ship, they will attack it. If they have such weapons aboard their ship, we will know and plan accordingly. If they are not armed with such weapons, we will board their vessel and take it and eat both the crew and the mammals on the red planet. All I ask is a little patience, we do not want a nuclear device exploding against our main air lock, or our engines, that would be catastrophic, wouldn't it?"

A'Tilla and Artegon were forced to agree with Bramzs that it would be catastrophic, so they agreed to abide by the commander's plan, to wait and see what weapons were on the alien vessel, if any. If it was bereft of anything other than a popgun, then they would immediately board the alien vessel, steal its secrets, and then attack Earth. That, they all agreed, would be the best way forward. Therefore, he, and everyone within the Ark, waited for the arrival of the Discovery and whatever the Fates had in store for them.

**********

Charles Brannigan at Moon Base decided that the Discovery needed to know of the twin launches made by the Russian and the Chinese, therefore he sent them a message using the laser communications technology. Only a new British invention installed on the Discovery, and the powerful computers on the Moon, allowed the light beam to find its target. The fact that others from Earth were now also on the way to Mars did lighten the mod upon the Discovery, for they were no longer alone, if they failed then others could take up the challenge.

The Discovery was thirty days in to its mission when David Brightly noticed a blip on their radar screen, and it did not go away. On the Annihilator, the sound of the radar pulse warned them that they had been detected, they immediately prepared to moved further away from the Discovery. On the Discovery, David turned anxiously to Sam and said.

"Sam, we either have company or, there is a small asteroid to our starboard side, and it appears to be heading in the same direction as us and at our precise speed." He then added. "Of course, it could be a fault in the equipment, it is brand new and has not been tested over this long a period of constant use."

The latter had been partly wishful thinking, for he was afraid that they were about to meet their feared destiny, death. Sam looked across at his friend and saw the fear there, although David quickly hid it. Sam shrugged his shoulders in answer to his friend's unsaid words.

"Even so, David, I think that we should treat it as an enemy vessel, it is where we would expect one to be, though why it has not attacked us, baffles me." Sam replied and then turned on the intercom and informed the crew of the current problem.

"Something or someone is shadowing us and as there are no other earth ships out here with us, please go to your actions stations." He then attempted to add a little bravado. "They came to our solar system with all guns blazing, let's treat them likewise. I am preparing to fire off two of our cruise missiles before the aliens open fire on us."

Action stations meant that everyone should be ready to report any breaches in the inner hull, or any other damage and to repair them if possible. Although none of them thought they would get the chance to act, not if it was an alien ship shadowing them, not after the way it had destroyed their space stations and the Orion shuttle and of course, murdering their crews.

If their cruise missiles were used within the atmosphere of Earth, and at its current speed of 45,000 mph, its flight through the air would probably become unstable and it would begin to tumble, and finally crash. They, however, were in space, and so the missile would do so such thing, with no air to cause friction it would continue at its present speed for some time. Sam considered changing course so that the Discovery would slowly get nearer to the cause of the blip, however, the speed of the blip immediately began to increase.

"Sam, they are increasing speed, we simply do not have the speed to keep up with them, and nor will our missile. Sam, we have lost all contact with the vessel."

Sam breathed a sigh of relief and immediately turned the intercom back on and said.

"Good news everyone, the alien vessel must have detected our radar pulses, it has moved away at speed, meaning that we cannot fire at it, therefore, we can all breathe easy for now. However, will you all remain at your action stations, just in case the alien vessel returns to attack us. Noah, will you come up to the bridge, I need your help."

Noah Abrams was a physicist of note and he quickly arrived at the bridge.

"What's up Sam." Noah asked.

"Noah, I believe that the alien ship moved away because our active radar warned him that he had been detected. Is there a way for us to detect it other than by using our radar, a way that they cannot detect?"

"Well Sam, their engine must produce something that will be detectable by our scientific instruments aboard the Discovery, and we have plenty of them. If so Sam, I promise you that I will find them." Noah replied.

"Please do so Noah, it might give us a much-needed edge."

Sam had thought it strange that they had been left alone for so long, they had obviously decided to check them over, but was that all? With the alien ship moving away from them, rather than opening fire upon them, he wondered if the aliens planned to capture the Discovery when it reached Mars. This was not a new thought, they had all realised the dangers involved in the mission, even so, what use would it be to them, it was nowhere near as sophisticated as their own vessels. However, with the thought that the alien vessel might still be shadowing them, nerves got a little stressed out, luckily, the Discovery was big enough to find a space to hide away, and the crew small enough to allow it. That is, except for those on the bridge, although they were no longer at action stations, they had always to be alert for signs that their shadow had returned. Ready to fight but not to surrender, to do whatever the occasion demanded.

The scientists had to help out on the bridge, except for Noah Abrams of course, he was busy working on their detection system. The other scientists amongst their crew were now asked to take turns at the radar console which was now focused forward, or they focussed their attention upon the small monitor beside it to which their telescope sent back its pictures of the area of space around them. It was hardly a task that any of them relished, for it became boring after the first five minutes, and the systems had to be manned 24 hours per day. Thankfully, the computer operated their passive scanners, such as the one that would alert them should the radiation around the Discovery suddenly increase.

For a moment, Sam had wished that they had brought a larger crew along, but then he realised, their mass would have been greater, both from the extra crew and also their rations.

The following morning, set at Eastern Standard Time in the US, Noah Abrams called Sam on the intercom.

"Sam, there is a continuous flow of hot plasma 1000 miles to starboard, it could be the exhaust from the alien spaceship."

"I will be right there Noah."

Sam turned to Joel Goldstein and said.

"You have the bridge Joel; I will not be long. Let me know if the situation up here changes."

Many thoughts ran through Sam's mind as he walked along to the laboratory where Noah Abrams was working, it was on the same level as the bridge. Was this to be their final day, or would the alien ship act as before, shadow them but not attack them. As he approached the laboratory, he donned his normal confident air and nodded at Noah as he entered the laboratory and said. "Show me."

Noah pointed to a monitor which clearly showed a line moving in space and paralleling their own course and speed.

"I bet he is feeling quite confident over there Noah, believing that we are unaware of his position, if we could close with him, we could send a couple of Hypersonic cruise missiles in to the beginning of his plasma trail and damage his engines, and they may even be enough to finish him off."

"The trick will be getting close enough to fire the missiles Sam, because if we are too far away from him, he will accelerate away and that will mean we are down two of our missiles."

"Even so Noah, we can try, maybe our luck is about to change, what do we have to lose? He can either move away again or fire upon us and if the latter, well, it would only mean that he came with orders to destroy us, we have nothing to lose except a minute or two's continued existence." Sam said shrugging his shoulders and turning to leave.

Noah looked after him and wondered if their captain had nerves of steel, he seemed so indifferent to death. In fact, Sam was not indifferent, he, like the others, was scared, but he was damned if he would give in to it, while there was a breath left in his body, he would fight to stay alive.

On returning to the bridge, Sam changed their course, by no more than a degree, so that they would get near enough to the alien vessel to risk firing off two of their missiles at it, and with luck without their prey immediately noticing his slight course change. There was just a chance that the alien captain would be amused to close up on his enemy, thinking that they were unaware of his presence. They would know in less than ninety minutes.

**********

At this precise time, an Indian spaceship was being readied at the Indian Moon base, it too was scheduled to head for Mars, it too was armed with a laser weapon. The vessel was of a similar design to the Discovery, having been made to the American design, but with the addition of the laser weapon. It too carried Hypersonic nuclear tipped missiles and Hypersonic cruise missiles, curtesy of the Americans who finally felt guilty in sending the Discovery out alone and without sufficient weaponry to give them a chance of surviving this mission. Their mission was to check on the Indian base and then to link up with the Discovery, if it was still in existence, and if necessary, pass some of its missiles across to the Discovery. Together they would take the battle to the aliens and once again, no one gave too much thought to the survival odds of those on board the Indian ship, the Kolkata.

**********

Three minutes later and Briestz on the Annihilator, suddenly realised that the Discovery was on a collision course with them, although it would be eighty-seven minutes before that event occurred, unless of course he changed the course of his own vessel in the meantime. He smiled, if they only knew just how close they would soon be to his vessel, relatively speaking, but they were no longer using their primitive radar system. He was at heart a sixteenth century buccaneer, the thought of drawing alongside the earth ship appealed to his sense of humour, oh how he would laugh when he repeated this to his comrades aboard the Ark.

***********

The time seemed to pass very slowly for the crew of the Discovery, but in real time it passed very quickly and soon the time to act arrived. Sam and his crew could not believe that they had been allowed to close so near to the alien spaceship, not without some action on the part of the alien vessel.

"Strap in everybody, when I hit the 'afterburner' we will be pushed back painfully in to our acceleration couches."

Everyone hastily strapped themselves in to their acceleration couches, and the expressions on their faces were a mixture of hope and anxiety. Finally, with the vessels very near to one another, and with a suddenly nervous Briestz about to finally order a course change, Sam Palmer ordered the hanger bay doors to open, wondering if this action would alert their enemy, but still they closed upon the alien vessel.

David had already powered up the Hypersonic cruise missile system, he now input the target on the missile console.

Their computer which was linked up to the new missile console now said.

"Two Hypersonic cruise missiles armed; missiles are ready for launching."

David could not believe that the alien vessel was unaware of their presence, he looked across nervously at Sam who smiled and said.

"On my order David, launch the missiles."

David now locked in the target as Sam began the countdown.

"Three, two, one, launch."

They then did a number of things simultaneously. Sam turned the Discovery and set it on a course that took it over the top of the Annihilator at a 45 degree angle while also pressing the 'afterburner' button on the pilot's panel before him, and the crew felt the sudden lurch forward as they accelerated over the top of the alien vessel. At the same time, David pressed a button on his missile console which sent two cruise missiles away, they shot out through the hanger doors, straight towards their enemy. Even as Briestz aboard the Annihilator realised what was happening, the two missiles struck the rear section of his vessel, punching two large holes within its hull and throwing his engines off line. The large hull breach killed the crew within the engineering department and caused the subsequent loss of much of their air supply before the crash doors closed. However, the two explosions had also caused a systems failure and the internal pumps continued to supply air to the breached engineering department, while sucking in the vacuum of space. The engines were no longer functioning, his plasma cannon was without any power and only the emergency lighting lit up the bridge on the vessel. He knew that they had only minutes left to live, certainly not enough time for the Ark to respond to his distress call. Soon the cold would fill the interior of his vessel, then the air supply would fail. No, he had failed and he deserved to accept the consequences, accepting this, he lifted up a small door that covered a small computer monitor and a large red button. A light on the side of a camera set above him glowed red, the computer was checking on who was about to use the self-destruct program. Briestz placed his hand on to the monitor and the computer released control of the button. Briestz, with tears in his eyes, pushed the button down and the voice of the computer filled the bridge.

"Commander Briestz, you have chosen to destroy the Annihilator, you have twenty seconds to stop the countdown."

Briestz stood to attention, he could not allow his vessel to fall in to the hands of the mammals, he would be failing in his duty to his people if he acted in any other way. Around him, his crew also stood to attention, for to ask the mammals for assistance would be reason enough for them to commit suicide in itself.

**********

Their speed meant that the Discovery had moved far away from the alien vessel even as the two missiles had impacted against it. Aboard the Discovery, their computer registered an enormous explosion behind it, one that they had watched on the view screen. Sam turned off their 'afterburner' now, for they were no longer in any immediate danger. They had revenged their dead; the undeclared war had now been acknowledged by them in a fiery explosion that he hoped would make their enemy think twice before they continued on their chosen course. He then turned the Discovery back on course as the crew erupted in celebration of their audacious victory. Sarah Shaw suddenly appeared with a bottle of Californian Korbel dry white sparkling wine and eight mugs.

"Sorry, no Champagne flutes, but the wine will still take as good, especially now."

Sarah put the bottle and the mugs down on top of a low shelf and opened the bottle, which gave a loud pop as she pushed up the cork. She poured each of them a measure that emptied the bottle. In the meantime, Sam had ordered everyone not on the bridge to report there at the double, as they were about to celebrate their victory. As the other crew members appeared on the bridge and accepted their mugs of wine, Sarah said.

"Here is to the Discovery, the best damned space vessel in the whole of this planetary system."

This sentiment was cheered by all and after taking a small sip, David said.

"My god, I was worried that I would make a mistake in the timing, because it would only have taken a small error in time to have seen us caught up in the explosion back there."

"There was never a chance of that happening." Sam replied. "Here's to David Brightly, the damned best shot in the planetary system."

"To David." Everyone said loudly and they then cheered.

David's face went red as he said.

"Listen everyone, for I have a theory about the aliens, if their large asteroid is in fact a space ark, they may have been travelling for some time, the ones currently within the ark might not even be the original voyagers but their offspring. If so, they may be very inexperienced in the art of war, which might explain why they suck at it."

Sam looked across at his friend and smiled and after taking a large sip of his wine he said. "You might well be correct David, but even so, they have the weapons, they have the power, they will not be a pushover."

"No, they probably will not be Sam, but at least, if I am right, Mankind now has a chance of coming through this."

"As long as we can keep them out here, if they reach Earth, they can use their energy weapons to wipe out our military. Any missiles launched at them will easily be destroyed by them, but as you say David, there is now a chance for Mankind." Sam then turned to Sarah and said. "Is this the only bottle, or did you bring another one along?"

**********

On the Ark, Bramzs had just received a message from his main computer, it was from the computer aboard the Annihilator, it gave him a second by second report on what had happened, ending by telling him of its imminent destruction. He was stunned, as were the others with the command centre. How could a primitive race with stone age space vessels destroy a state-of-the-art spaceship, it should have been impossible, what secret weapons did they have at their disposal? They had lost their only attack vessel, not in a battle but in a humdrum shadowing operation. All future actions would have to be executed by himself aboard the Ark. Yes, the Ark possessed three powerful plasma cannons, they were set within the bows of its rocky hull. They also had their six transport vessels and one small freighter, they were designed to transport his people down to the planet's surface, these vessels were lightly armed, however he could not use these except in an emergency, else he would risk his people being trapped aboard the Ark, doomed to wander through the depths of space until madness overcome them. He decided to lay a trap, one that the mammals would not see coming, not with their violent Palaeolithic intelligence, they would walk right in to it. His feelings of guilt had evaporated with the destruction of the Annihilator, now he wanted revenge.

**********

The crew of the Discovery were elated with their victory, one that even surprised them, for they had all harboured the thought that they had been despatched on a suicide mission, even if some of them had concealed it deep within their subconscious minds. Even after their victory, fear still made each of them wonder, why they had volunteered for this mission, one where they stood little chance of surviving. Then each time the answer flooded back in to their minds, this was the only chance that their family, friends and the rest of Mankind had of surviving to see another Spring.

As they flew ever closer to Mars, so that it finally filled their camera's view, these fears surfaced, exposed for all to see, even so, against all of their dark expectations, they had arrived in the vicinity of Mars without any further mishaps. Yet they knew that the large asteroid still remained hidden behind the now large disc of Mars, but they still wondered why it had not shown itself. Were the aliens afraid, had their massive vessel developed a fault, or were they simply performing some alien ritual in which time itself performed a vital task.

The astronomers on the Moon had witnessed the two explosions, the first one slightly smaller than the first had been caused by the cruise missiles, the larger one was the result of the self-destruct mechanism on the Annihilator. For a few minutes they thought that they had witnessed the death of the Discovery, but when their telescopes detected its signature after the flames aboard the alien vessel had burnt themselves out, they wondered just what had been destroyed.

"They must have used a Hypersonic cruise missile; because neither of the explosions were large enough for a nuke." Brannigan said. "Whatever they were, I will let Earth know, they can worry about it."

This information did not worry Earth, they too felt that the Discovery must have scored its first victory, but how, against a superior vessel? Also, following the destruction of the alien vessel, the best minds on Earth could not understand the reasoning behind their enemy's lack of action, what was going on behind Mars. The Ark had now been seen countless times, it was there, why did their enemy wait to respond, using the weapon that had been used before? Surely, the lack of action could not be because the aliens feared the Discovery, that was so illogical as to be ludicrous. The aliens had come across inter-stellar space, therefore, they must be so much in advance of the technology of Earth. The weapon they had used to murder the astronauts aboard the space stations and taken out the space telescopes was still decades or more in advance of anything Earth could manufacture.

The next day the Discovery passed the alien Silencer drone, which was positioned between Earth and Mars, without even noticing the stealth drone. However, they did notice that while their radio had been full of static when the communications dish was pointed back towards Earth, now when they pointed it at Mars, the jamming had suddenly disappeared. Sam looked across at David and said.

"They must have another ship or drone close by, it must the reason why Earth lost contact with Mars."

"Then should we not look for it, isn't it part of the reason as to why we came this far?" David asked.

"No, David, we came to Mars looking for answers, we may have found one, but many others remain, including whether our people on Mars are still alive. We will allow the Russian or the Chinese vessel to take out the drone, they both have lasers while we only have a finite number of missiles." Sam replied and then added. "David, I want you to use our laser communications system to contact Moon base. Tell them of our theory about the drone, also that there may well be more such drones in orbit around Earth, something they should know if they are to beat the jamming. Oh, and tell them that our dead have been revenged and how. Finish off by telling them that we are proceeding on to Mars"

**********

Brannigan was ecstatic when he read the confirmation sent to him by the Discovery crew, how they had taken revenge against the alien vessel. He was overjoyed when he learned of their theory regarding the presence of drones in orbit around the Earth, if they were there, then NASA would find them. It knew the position of every rock or device in orbit around Earth, if they were there NASA would find them. He immediately contacted Earth and relayed the news, who on hearing it broke in to celebrations, even though the Discovery was about to enter the most dangerous phase of their mission.

On being told the good news, Bartlett returned to his office, although the destruction of the alien vessel had raised his spirits, the theory about the drones had not added to it. His people had been searching for alien vessels for weeks without success, if they were there then they were well hidden. He sat down at his desk and pulled out his notebook, then he began to make yet another list of what Earth needed to do to find the drones. Unfortunately, they could be hidden amongst all the new space junk in orbit around the Earth, newly created following the alien attack on their space stations and telescopes. At the top of the list was the US Space Surveillance Network, which kept track of all the remaining space debris still in orbit around the Earth, but they were already using their expertise to look for alien spaceships or satellites. He decided to ask more of the ground-based telescopes to join in the search, unfortunately none of their space telescopes had survived the alien attack, of course there were still some on the Moon, maybe they would have better luck than the Surveillance network.

**********

Sam decided to slow their speed down as they approached ever nearer to Mars, he knew that the aliens possessed vessels that must move appreciably faster than the Discovery, and by reducing their own speed below 45,000 mph would put them at a much greater disadvantage, but would it matter, for they were a WW1 biplane against a modern day fighter aircraft. He now warned his crew over the intercom of his planned change in speed.

"I am about to bring our speed down to 25,000 mph; it will be a gradual drop but you might want to strap yourselves in."

He waited five minutes to give everyone the opportunity to do so and then he made use of their retro rockets, and over a three-hour period the speed of the Discovery slowly dropped down to 25,000 mph. Mars loomed ever nearer, and finally, the camera aboard the Discovery could no longer see the whole of Mars, they were too close. Sam decided to attempt to contact Mars One on their radio, rather than with the laser communications system, which he assumed was not switched on aboard the Return Home ship, so as not to draw attention to it.

"This is Captain Samuel Palmer on board the Discovery, Mars One, come in please."

Ten seconds later and Michael Patel's confused but jubilant voice confirmed that at least some of their people were still alive.

"Sam, it is simply fantastic to hear your voice, but where are you, is the Discovery still on the Moon?"

"Not quite Michael, yes, I am aboard the Discovery but we are a lot closer than the Moon, in fact we are just 50,000 miles away from you and closing. But tell me, how is everyone down there?"

"We are fine Sam, although a little scared following someone or something destroying our laser communications array, especially after losing radio contact with Earth and the Moon. Tell me, just what is going on, has some idiot blown up the Earth?"

"Later, Michael, is Andreas with you, I must speak to him urgently?"

Five seconds passed by and Andreas Georgiadis, another Geologist at the base asked quizzically.

"Yes, Sam, I am here, what`s up?"

Sam had a Greek Mother who had taught him her language, and Sam now spoke in Greek.

"Hi, Andrea, I am speaking in your language in an attempt at secrecy, our alien friends may be listening in to us and they may understand English, but surely not our parents' language. So here goes. The World is still in one piece, we believe that we are under attack from an alien civilisation. They took out all of the space stations in orbit around Earth, killing the crews, they also took out all of the space telescopes. They are jamming all of the radio stations on Earth, local or otherwise. The jamming between us and Mars stopped just now, so they must have a drone or ship out here causing the jamming. Why they left Moon base alone, or the Discovery, I cannot say. We were kind of hoping that you may know something."

"Us, no, we know nothing at all about what is happening away from the red planet."

"Andrea, ask Richie Compton in Mars Two to have his laser communications system manned at all times, we may need to contact him if we are around the other side of Mars and need to give you and Earth any vital intelligence we may have learned about the aliens."

"Will do, Sam, anything else?"

"Only that the aliens may land on Mars at any time, so keep a lookout for them, and remember, they do not baulk at murder, your policy must be no surrender if you are to have any sort of chance of surviving the coming battles. I have to go now; our mission was to check on everyone down there and to attempt to take out the alien ships. Their main ship appears to be a large asteroid, at the moment it is hiding behind Mars, Andrea, it is one mile in diameter. We took out one of their stealth ships with a couple of Hypersonic cruise missiles yesterday, so they are not invincible. I will contact you later, I hope, and will try to keep you updated on what is going on."

(Greek language lesson, the final 's' in Andreas is dropped when he is spoken to directly.)

**********

Bramzs had listened in to the exchange between Sam and Andreas, however, their computer was unable to translate it, all it could say was that there were innumerable languages used by the mammals, it could have been any of them. Bramzs swore and a thought flashed across his mind, should he have ordered the Annihilator to have destroyed the mammal's spacecraft rather than shadow it. An answer quickly came, no, he was after important information regarding the strength of their enemy, Briestz had simply made a mistake because he had no experience of actual warfare. He would have to do better, even though he too had no such experience, all he had was theory.

**********

Back on Earth, the populace was fearful for their astronauts, what if one of the spaceships was damaged, or it broke down far away from help. The other ships would have to ignore them, too much was at stake for all of them to fail in their mission, which was to stop the alien attack. The newspapers were full of the latest reports, sparse as they were, while experts predicted what could happen next. This, of course, was all conjecture as apart from the one call from the Discovery, nothing had come in from any of the spaceships since they had left their home bases. Although, the telescopes of the world were attempting, and succeeding for the moment, to keep track of them.

The Russians, closely followed by the Chinese, were two weeks behind the Discovery, their crews were also fearful of being attacked and in fact, their crews too wondered why they had been left alone. Neither of their spaceships were as large or as sophisticated as the Discovery, their danger was therefore even more acute, if the aliens suddenly took an interest in them. To ensure that they did not drop further behind the Discovery, extra booster rockets had been fitted to the two spaceships, they had now been dropped. They would now have to rely upon their own engines to get them to Mars and back.

At Mars One and Mars Two, having just learned about the alien invaders, everyone there was afraid for the crew of the Discovery on their suicide mission, for Earth, their families back on Earth and finally, for their own lives. However, they continued on with their offensive and defensive plans, now aimed at the aliens rather than their fellow humans, for what else could they do? They had spoken to the other nations on Mars, telling them just what Sam had told them, but they had no more information regarding the alien threat than was already known by the team at the Mars One base.

**********

They were 20,000 miles from the red planet and Sam decided that they would soon need to have greater manoeuvrability as they negotiated between Mars and its two moons and whatever alien space vessels were hidden by the red planet and its moons. Sam once again decided to reduce their speed, and once again he informed his crew first.

"I am about to reduce our speed down to 10,000 mph, once again it will be a gradual drop but you might want to strap yourselves in."

Once again, he gave them time to act before he once again used their retro rockets, he reduced the speed of the Discovery down over a one-hour period to 10,000 mph. They still moved forward at a rapid speed, looking out for either a large asteroid or another alien spaceship, and as Mars One disappeared from their view, they sighted a large rock that was in orbit around Mars.

"It is too large for the alien asteroid, Sam, it must be Phobos, the larger of the two moons of Mars." David said.

"They could be hiding behind the moon David, keep a close watch on it." Sam replied and then said over the intercom to the other members of the crew.

"The Martian moon Phobos is directly ahead of us, but there is still no sign of the enemy. Our speed is now 10,000 mph, but be prepared for me to hit the gas pedal at any time, should we find ourselves outgunned and with no way through any defence shields that they may, or may not, possess."

Also on the bridge, along with the regular bridge crew, was Joel Goldstein, he was at the monitor watching the view shown by their telescope and he saw the alien vessel first.

"Sam, ahead of us at ten o'clock, there is a vessel of some kind."

Sam quickly switched on the intercom.

"Listen up everyone, we are approaching another alien ship, prepare to engage the enemy and strap yourselves in!" Sam exclaimed.

The excitement in his voice was plain to hear, his previous fears driven away by the hopes of a second victory over the aliens. He was now looking at the large view screen set in front of the bridge crew.

"Joel, open the hanger bay doors." Sam ordered.

"David, there is some sort of an array on its upper hull, and see there, beneath it, another one, but different. It looks more like a freighter than the stealth ship that we took out and which surely attacked Earth and killed our people aboard the space stations. Even so, David, prepare two of our cruise missiles for launching."

David moved across to the new missile console and turned on the missile array down in the hanger bay.

"Does anyone see the large asteroid?" Sam asked.

"No, Sam, it must be further on." David replied and then added. "The missile system is powering up Sam, the two missiles will be armed and ready in seconds." David then asked "Sam, they have not opened fire upon us, why?"

Cutting across their hurried conversation, their computer said.

"Two Hypersonic cruise missiles armed; missiles are ready for launching."

Sam took in the information while continuing to look at the alien vessel on his screen, he now replied to David's question.

"Maybe they have not seen us. No, they have seen us, David, launch the two cruise missiles, the aliens are targeting us."

The lower array aboard the alien freighter was turning towards them, soon it would be pointing at the Discovery. David had already input the missiles target in to the console, now he locked the target and pressed a button on the screen of the console, the two missiles shot out through the hanger doors and turned left towards their enemy.

"Missiles away Sam." David called out.

Everyone on the ship felt the vibration caused when the main engines aboard the Discovery moved in to first gear, and everyone offered a prayer that the two missiles would reach the enemy vessel and destroy it before it opened fire upon them. Sam took the Discovery on a course that would take it to one side but above the freighter, he did not want to be near when the missiles struck, he also wanted to make it harder for the weapons system aboard the alien ship to lock on to their relatively fast-moving vessel.

Even as he attempted to take the Discovery to safety, he searched space in front of them for the alien asteroid, and while the enemy were in disarray, assuming the missiles got through to the alien ship, assuming that it did not possess any ultra-modern defence shields, of which the Discovery had none.

"The missiles will hit in ten seconds, Sam, they are beginning to move, but it's too late." David crowed.

His words were followed by the two missiles striking the freighter, they saw the subsequent explosions on their large view screen as they moved away searching for the asteroid further round the huge disc of Mars that dwarfed everything else. Sam could not believe the success they were enjoying, to think that they had thought this would be a suicide mission.

Chapter Three

The Reptoid Ark

Bramzs was both annoyed and delighted. Annoyed because they had lost the freighter for no good reason, but also delighted, for once again the mammals had used ancient missiles to attack their enemy. No, Bramzs decided, the Discovery only had slow moving non-nuclear missiles, and as the mammals celebrated their victory, he would use the Slave weapon upon them, it would provide a suitable test against the mammals of Earth as a whole.

From behind the spaceship Discovery, the Reptoid Ark moved away from the bulk of Phobos that had hidden it. His trap was working, the mammals had no idea that his vessel was closing on them from behind. They obviously did not possess any sensors and they had not made use of their crude space radar since it had been detected by the Annihilator. He called over to his science officer.

"Zyclon, charge the inter-ship Slave weapon to full power, use it immediately we come in to range."

**********

In one of the science laboratories, Noah Abrams heard an alarm screaming out its message of warning. He rushed over to the intercom and said,

"Sam, there is a large amount of very hot plasma somewhere to our stern, it must be the asteroid which we were searching for, and Sam, they have found us and they are closing fast."

Sam called across to David Brightly.

"David re-open up the hanger doors."

The hanger bay doors had been closed following the launching of the two missiles, and as the hanger bay was always kept depressurized, except for when they needed to check on the missiles, the doors immediately began to swing open.

Sam turned to his computer and saw that Noah had transferred the co-ordinates of the hot plasma, and the amount indicated meant that it must be the asteroid, and that it was indeed closing on them fast from behind them. He called across to David.

"David, arm both of the nuclear armed missiles for immediate launching."

Sam now had their computer show them the view behind them, at maximum magnification they saw a large asteroid approaching their position at a speed they could not match. The asteroid was almost upon them as their computer said.

"Two nuclear warheads armed; missiles ready for launching."

"David, launch the missiles now." Sam ordered.

David hit the fire button on his monitor and the two missiles launched from their hanger deck, turned towards the asteroid and rushed forward. Sam now turned the Discovery to starboard and increased power, he wanted to be far away from the two nuclear explosions, when they happened. Sam turned on the intercom to update the crew about what was happening just as a high frequency sound came through their radio communications system, turned on to receive any messages that might come their way from Earth, the Moon or Mars.

**********

The two nuclear armed missiles soon passed the asteroid which had been slowing up, for Bramzs intended to have the Discovery brought aboard the Ark, and now the missiles were moving faster than the Ark! The two missiles had turned back to head towards the two engine's thrust chambers at the rear of the asteroid's engines and when they reached their objective they exploded where the hot plasma was forced out of the ionization chamber. They hit just fifteen seconds after Bramzs had activated his Slave weapon. The resulting explosions destroyed the two powerful main engines of the Ark, throwing everyone off their feet and on to, or against, the walls, floors, computers or furniture. Many of the Reptoids suffered painful knocks, some broke an arm or were knocked unconscious. Bramzs in the command area realised, belatedly, that the Palaeolithic spaceship did indeed possess nuclear weapons, that he should have destroyed it with his energy weapons, not attempted to capture it.

Unfortunately, the Slave weapon, when fully powered up, would operate even if its power supply was cut, and it continued to send its hypnotic high frequency sounds to the Discovery.

**********

On board the Discovery, as soon as Sam felt began to feel the effects of the Slave weapon, he knew that it must have been caused by the aliens, they had a terrible weapon that he could not overcome. A hypnotic high frequency sound was inside his brain, taking it over, making thought a supreme effort. He saw his crew collapsing to their knees, groaning in pain from the terrible hypnotic sound, they were unable to come to his rescue and he certainly could not help them in their moment of dire need. As a final act of defiance, he struggled across to the missile console and armed the ten remaining Hypersonic cruise missiles, the hanger bay door was still open and through the high frequency sound of the Slave weapon he heard their computer say.

"Ten Hypersonic cruise missiles armed; missiles ready for launching."

Sam locked in their target and launched the ten Hypersonic cruise missiles.

Using the last of his stubborn willpower, he sent a message to Mars Two, his voice was weak and wavering, the aliens' weapon still continuing to take control of his mind, his sentences spaced out and at times almost inaudible.

"Richie, this is Captain Samuel Palmer aboard the Discovery, my crew have been knocked out by a high frequency sound coming through our intercom, I believe it was introduced to the ship via our radio. I can hear a voice, it is telling me to stop our engines and turn towards the asteroid, I cannot fight it, however I have managed...."

All the while that he resisted, a voice had come over the Discovery radio, it was being sent by the Ark weapons' control centre, rather than the Slave weapon which had finally run out of power. It travelled through the intercom to all the departments of the Discovery, continuously repeating a command. "This is a direct command from NASA on Earth, surrender to the aliens, they are your friends, they will help you. Turn your vessel back towards the asteroid now, this is a command from NASA on Earth, do not disobey it, it is vital for not only your security, but also the security of Earth. Obey, obey, obey."

Before his mind finally clouded over, one thought made him smile, he and his crew had saved Earth, for he had seen the destruction caused by the two nuclear armed missiles, he knew that the aliens should also be facing a cold certain death. He did not remember turning off their engine, he did not hear the hypnotic voice anymore, or the high frequency sound which in any case had run out of power.

Down on Mars, Richie Compton, the commander of Mars Two was desperately trying to get back in contact with the Discovery, but without success. Finally, he gave up and contacted Mars One, and feeling a great sense of loss for the crew of the Discovery, he passed on all that Captain Palmer had said in his message.

**********

They were on auxiliary power as their engineers assessed the damage to the Ark. Thankfully, for otherwise the artificial gravity device would have cut out, it being programmed to take power from the auxiliary engine if the primary power source was interrupted. Bramzs demanded to know two things of his command crew. First, just how bad the damage to the Ark was, and secondly, what was the state of the crew aboard the Discovery. The Discovery was heading in to deep space and had been accelerating away from the Ark. It was the 2nd engineer who reported to him regarding the damage to the Ark's engines.

"We have a massive hull breach in the engineering department, anyone who was in there at the time is dead. The whole area is radioactive, only the fact that our crash doors closed, saved us from its affects. Thankfully, the number of those thought to have been killed is minimal, however, the only way to move Ark now is with our thrusters and the retro rockets, that thankfully, are both powered by our auxiliary engines, because the two main engines were completely destroyed in the explosion. We need to land the Ark on the small moon, the one which we were waiting behind, that will save us much needed power. Commander, the Ark is not going to reach our chosen new home, in any case, our plasma cannons are without any power, as too is the Slave weapon. In fact, we will probably have to choose between living in terrible conditions within the Ark, if we can get our environmental system working at even 50% of their previous output or moving en-masse down to the red planet. In fact, I believe that we will have to move some of our citizens down to the red planet in any case, we simply do not have the power to operate the environmental systems for everyone here within the Ark. Down there, we will have room to spread out, although first we would have to rid the planet of its present occupiers. Eventually, we will have to carve out more living space beneath the surface of the planet for the majority of the colonists, for the Ark will become increasingly uninhabitable without the power that was provided by its main engines. Thankfully, the Chief engineer was on his rest period, as was all of the 2nd and 3rd watch, so we have plenty of workers, there are just no main engines for them to fix." The 2nd engineer reported in somewhat of a daze.

Bramzs too felt decidedly dizzy as he took the engineers report in, he could only just ask.

"How long do we have to decide what to do?"

"That depends on our science team and the chief engineer, if they cannot come up with a quick fix, then not much more than two weeks, because we cannot keep the temperature within parts of the Ark from dropping way below freezing for much longer than that."

Bramzs turned to one of his command crew who had been following the Discovery on the Ark's sensors, although they were so short of power that they were only of use now over very short distances, which in space were very few.

"The mammals' spaceship, what is happening, is it under our control?" Bramzs demanded to know.

"Yes, Commander, the crew have turned off their engines, fired their retro engines, the vessel is slowing down, but they seem to be incapable of doing anything else, for some reason the Slave weapon has all but turned their minds off, rather than make them accept our orders."

Even as he heard this news, another of his command crew, Science Officer Fyron Jebz, was panicking.

"Commander, there are ten more missiles coming towards us, and we have no defence against them, they are going to hit us!" He exclaimed almost hysterically fearing that they too were nuclear armed missiles.

Grappon A'Tilla, the Reptoid who would lead the new colony, when and if it was ever up and running, came through to the command area looking rather belligerent.

"Tell me Commander Bramzs, what are you going to do to ensure our mission is a success, because given our current situation we seem to be losing the battle against the backward mammals?" A'Tilla demanded to know.

He stood there patiently awaiting an answer when the ten Hypersonic cruise missiles struck the Ark, the resulting vibration made everyone fear for their lives. A fearful A'Tilla looked around him and finally asked.

"What the hell was that?"

It was Jebz who replied.

"Ten missiles from the alien spaceship, they impacted against the rocky surface of the Ark."

"Did they hit anything of any consequence?" A'Tilla asked.

In fact, they had destroyed the Reptoid's communications relay, their scanners and anything else that could have been of use to them and was on the surface of the asteroid. The structure of the Ark had not been damaged, and everything within the Ark was relatively untouched, reports began to come in of rock falls, but they appeared to be minor. Apart from that, a little plaster and dust fell from the ceiling and a few items were knocked to the floor from various shelves around the Ark.

Bramzs had ignored A'Tilla for the moment.

"Have our chief engineer report to me, when he is able" He ordered the 2nd engineer.

Only then did he turn to A'Tilla, he was more composed now and felt more able to talk.

"First citizen, we have taken command of the mammals' ship, when we finally have it in our hanger bay, we can fit one of our plasma cannons to its hull, install inertia dampening and artificial gravity. Then it will be a suitable vessel for the Reptoid nation. We can then destroy the other two vessels from Earth when they too arrive in the vicinity of the red planet. By then, using the solar energy provided by this system's sun, we should have enough stored energy to accomplish this and more." He replied confidently, although he did not feel confident at all, his mind was stunned by what had just happened.

"Just how can you know this commander, the barbarians, as you termed them, have destroyed two of our vessels and almost destroyed this one." A'Tilla said in contempt of Bramzs. "In fact, this vessel is all but finished and you know it, we must capture the mammals bases on the red planet, as the engineer suggested, that will lessen the strain on the meagre sources of energy that we have remaining to us."

While Bramzs fumed, his chief engineer arrived at the command centre and explained the idea that his team have come up with, how to provide some power to the environmental systems upon the Ark. He also added his recommendation to the idea to move some of the colonists down to the red planet.

Grappon A'Tilla was not satisfied with Bramzs, who was now visibly shaken by what had happened over such a short period of time. A'Tilla decided to take over the command of the Ark. Turning to Mystra Artegon he gave voice to his decision.

"Artegon, I hereby take command of the mission, execute ex-commander Bramzs, the charges being, the death of our crew aboard the Annihilator, its destruction, the destruction of the freighter, the partial destruction of the Ark and finally the death of any of the colonists that die because of his ridiculous actions while he was in command of our great mission to spread our civilisation across the galaxy."

Bramzs was shocked and once against he was to slow to respond, this time to the order given to Artegon who had pulled out his plasma pistol and used it against Bramzs. In fact, Artegon agreed wholeheartedly with the new commander, he had also decided to execute Bramzs, A'Tilla's order had just made the action the responsibility of another Reptoid, one more senior than he was in every way.

A'Tilla looked at the body of the ex-commander and then he turned once again to Artegon and asked.

"Find out what damage was caused by the last missiles to hit us, thankfully, they were not nuclear or we would probably all be dead by now."

"Yes, Consul." Artegon replied and sat at his station and attempted to contact other parts of the Ark.

It did not take long to find that they were blind in space, they were also mute and deaf. And with no way of using their communications centre, there was no way to order the crew aboard the Discovery to change course back towards the Ark.

A'Tilla knew that he had to act fast, they were all in danger of dying in space, or maybe on the red planet, that is if they could capture the mammals' bases. If they succeeded in doing so, then the next challenge would be to quickly enlarge them and then to enhance the environmental facilities already in place. Artegon now showed the value of having a member of the command crew as his 2nd in command.

"Commander, we might send one transport out to the mammal's vessel to board her and bring her back. Also, if we use our remaining transport as feelers, one in the hanger bay with the other four spread around us, we can use them to warn us via the hanger bay of any approaching danger, such as the moons of the red planet. Remember, there is still power for the thrusters and the retro rockets, they can also help us to return to the small moon where we can land and thereby reduce our power consumption."

"Artegon, as overall leader of the expedition I am very capable, however, I appoint you as the new commander of the Ark, she is yours to command, please save the mission, save the colonists." A'Tilla said giving part of his command away for the good of everyone, especially himself.

"Thank you, Sir, and I promise that we will fulfil our mission, even if we are a little late in accomplishing it."

Artegon did not stand around taking in the fact that he was now the commander, instead, he was all action. He turned to his helmsman, Maric Haque, and said.

"Maric, take one of our transport vessels and go after the alien vessel, board her and bring her and her crew back here. You will need a security team, a doctor and a second crew for the alien vessel. Oh, you had better take a space tug to move the alien ship, just in case their archaic technology takes too long to master."

Haque saluted and using the intercom had the necessary Reptoids meet him in the hanger bay, then he hurried down there.

Next, Artegon contacted the chief engineer.

"Chief, I am now in command, Bramzs has been executed for dereliction of duty."

"Understood Commander Artegon."

The chief engineer said no more, he had been expecting such an event, it was the Reptoid way, the former commander's family would also be executed.

"Chief, we will need the solar photovoltaic units installed up on the surface of the Ark, they will be needed to help our auxiliary engine give us the power we need."

"I was about to have them taken to the surface commander." The engineer replied.

"I should have realised Chief." Artegon replied with a smile before continuing.

"Chief, as we cannot stop the Ark, quickly, not with just the auxiliary engine, I intend to orbit the red planet using our retro rockets to slow the Ark. When we finally catch up with the moon, the one that we were so recently hiding behind like thieves in the night, I intend to land the Ark on to the moon. Luckily, the moon orbits the red planet more than once every one of the planet's days so we will have time to slow our speed so that we are moving at the correct speed when we make our move."

"I will see that you get the power that you need Commander, although it might take a while, Commander, bear in mind that we cannot allow our speed to drop too much, otherwise we will be dragged down on to the red planet, and that would prove fatal for all of us." The chief engineer warned his new commander.

"I realise that Chief, however, our computers are still working so they can work out our speed and timing."

"Of course, Sir, I did not mean to insult you." The engineer replied, worried that he may have said too much.

"I would rather you warn me about such things Chief, rather than leave me to make a bad mistake, so please do so whenever you feel it necessary."

This reply surprised the engineer, newly promoted Reptoids were usually a little touchy about such things. "Thank you, Commander, I will bear that in mind."

"Once we are safely down, you and I can discuss how best to provide the power and food that our people will need on the red planet, once we have taken the planet for our own. And when our people are safe, we can think about how to relocate to the third planet."

The chief engineer smiled, it appeared that the new commander was an optimist, well why not, at least he would have the gumption to try to succeed, rather than sit on his hands as the previous commander had done.

The Reptoids had been lucky, their auxiliary engine had been housed in a separate chamber protected by thick solid walls of rock to the one that housed the main engines and only this had saved them all from dying almost immediately when the two nuclear armed missiles had struck.

Artegon needed to slow the Ark so that they would be able to land the Ark without any instrumentation. They would only have the slow feed of data that would come via the hanger bay from the computers aboard the four transports, when he put his plan in to operation. Before he risked landing the Ark on the moon, the chief engineer had to increase the power produced by the auxiliary engine, one way was to reduce the power being used by the environmental system. The already dim lights now dimmed and then the temperature began to drop, Artegon smiled, the near future was going to be a very bleak one.

Two hours later and the computer had finished its work and the computations were sent to the computers aboard the five transport vessels so that their pilots would be aware of what the Ark was about to do and they could react accordingly. His command crew were also studying them, they too needed to be on the ball, for it could easily go badly wrong. It was time to put his plan in to operation, Artegon ordered the Reptoid crews for the five of the transports to report to him within the hanger bay, their vessels were to become the eyes and ears of the command crew. When they had all arrived, he briefed them on their new task.

"You are all probably aware that the mammals have destroyed our communications array and our scanners, therefore, we need your vessels to be our eyes, our ears and our whiskers. The main computer aboard the Ark will actually take us down on to the surface of the moon, but only by using the data sent by the computers aboard your vessels. However, I need you, the crews, to provide us with an extra stream of information to ensure that the computers have not missed a large hill or deep crater in their computations. I do want not so much as scratch the rock on the moon, or our Ark when we finally come to a rest. As soon as you board your vessels, link your computers to the Ark's main computer, this will be possible by using a newly installed link using the computer aboard TS6. Our computer has computed the speed we must make and our course needed to ensure a smooth landing. These details have been loaded in to the computers aboard your vessels, this will allow your computers to follow our programmed course and provide the main computer with second by second up to the second data so that it can make the necessary changes to the speed and course of the Ark."

The assembled crews looked alarmed to hear his plan, for it had never been done like this before, landing a large vessel without the main computer having direct data to all the necessary data, but Artegon ignored their alarm and continued. He presented a confident front to them, otherwise they could make a mistake if they saw that he too was concerned for all their futures.

"Transport crews TS1 to TS4, I need you to take your vessels out and position yourselves around the Ark. With your computers linked to the Ark's main computer, the Ark's computer will regulate your vessel's position, course and speed, to ensure that there is no break in the transmission of the data that it needs for a successful conclusion to our task. I will reiterate, the Ark's main computer will be in charge of bringing the Ark down to the its chosen landing site, not me nor our helmsman."

Artegon now turned to the crew of TS6. "TS6, you will be the communications relay, you will stay in the hanger bay and your computer will relay all the data sent to you from the four other vessels to our main computer. Our computer specialist is already aboard TS6 upgrading your computer to ensure that it has the necessary power and speed to ensure a swift transmission of data. All our you, although what we are about to do will be difficult, it will not be beyond us, we are Reptoids, not mammals, we will do this because we have to. Understood?

The Reptoids gathered around their commander and all replied as one.

"Understood, Exulted Commander."

"Good, then go to your vessels, take them to the underside of the Ark. TS1 will be on our forward port bow, TS2 on the forward starboard bow, TS3 on the aft port bow, TS4 on the aft starboard bow. Each craft will station itself so that it has a clear view of our underside so that when we land, we do not crash in to the surface of the moon. Although your vessels will be controlled by the main computer, please ensure that it does not position your vessels directly beneath the Ark, else we could lose you and we need each and every vessel that we still possess, not to mention their crews."

This last remark brought smiles to the crews of TS1 to 4 and with that Artegon returned to the command area. The computer specialist aboard TS6 confirmed that the computer update had been successful which meant that the mission could now go ahead. The hanger bay was de-pressurized and the four vessels lifted off and went to their respective stations around the underside of the large asteroid. Here he received some good news, he knew that the chief engineer had commandeered more of the Reptoids to place the massive solar photovoltaics on to the surface of the Ark, he was now told that the units were finally all up and running. They would capture the sun's energy, when the bulk of Mars did not block it from view, and they would provide the Ark with much needed energy. The panels had been carried with them as a temporary power source, just in case something happened to the main engines, now they would not be temporary, they, along with the auxiliary engine would have to provide all of their power. The chief engineer had already managed to boost the power coming from the auxiliary engine, but at a cost, the engine would need replacing much sooner than otherwise. However, in their current situation, did it matter?

**********

The crew aboard the Reptoid transport ship, TS5, whose mission it was to board the Discovery and take the vessel, were filled with excitement. Their pilot, 2nd class helmsman Rayak Tymaza, took their vessel quickly away from the asteroid and on course for the Discovery. Maric Haque, the helmsman of the Ark, was in command of the mission. With him on the transport vessel was his boarding crew who would crew the alien vessel, ten security officers, the doctor to ensure that the Discovery crew were indeed enslaved by the Reptoid's weapon and four command crew to safely pilot TS5 back to the Ark. More than enough, but then as Artegon had said, they had never flown aboard such an outdated vessel before, they had no idea what problems they would encounter. All of this was because the minds of the original crew refused to function and so they were unable to accomplish such an easy task. This was unusual for beings under the influence of the Slave weapon, normally they performed their duties as normal, be it at a slightly slower speed. Attached to the upper hull of TS5 was a space tug, it was controlled by its computer which had orders to follow TS5 and to obey Haque's orders.

As soon as they reached the Discovery, Tymaza pulled alongside her and sent a flexible docking tunnel across to the hull of the Discovery and fixed around its airlock. Now they could move along the tunnel, open the airlock and take command of the vessel. Haque led the way aboard the Discovery, which he immediately found cramped with so many Reptoids following on behind him. They found that the Discovery crew, while awake, were sitting down silent and looking dazed. Haque had seen enough of the old recordings that showed the victims of the weapon to recognise it, however when he ordered them to go to their stations, they did nothing. This had never been known before, something was definitely wrong with them, maybe their minds were simply too backward to function when enslaved. He turned to the doctor and said.

"Give the mammals something to knock them out, then I can send them and the security team back to the transport vessel, otherwise, with so many bodies on board this vessel someone is bound to make a mistake."

The doctor pulled out a small device that looked like a hand gun, he pointed at the Sam and pressed its trigger. An invisible gas was squirted in to Sam's face and he immediately slumped down unconscious. The doctor did the same to the other members of the bridge crew and when they were all unconscious, he went in search of the rest of the crew. When all of the Discovery crew had been found and attended to, Haque ordered the security team to take them back aboard the transport vessel.

Haque then went back up to the bridge of the alien vessel, here he was advised by one of the Reptoid' scientists that he should have the space tug move the alien vessel back to the Ark, which would be back in just five hours with Phobos now well behind it. They could use the time spent being towed in an attempt to work out how to operate the main engine and the thrusters, at least they could translate the language of the mammals. Haque agreed with the scientist, who was one of the boarding crew, for he had no wish to crash the alien vessel on to the Ark, he contacted the space tug and sent across its orders.

The space tug, using its thrusters only, landed on to the rear of the Discovery and clamped itself on to the upper hull. Then its powerful main engine and thrusters came on line and the Discovery was slowly turned and was soon heading back to the rendezvous point with the Ark. Five hours later and they were safely back inside the Ark's hanger bay, the salvage crew having learned much about the Discovery from its computer. The crew of the Discovery had also arrived, although much earlier, for the transport vessel travelled at a greater speed than the space tug. They had been taken off the transport vessel by the Reptoids and taken down to the Ark's brig. Here they were left inside the largest cell to wait for their interrogation to begin, although they had no knowledge what so ever about any of this.

Four hours' later, Artegon attempted to interrogate the crew of the Discovery, but without success, he assumed that the Slave weapon had damaged the minds of these mammals. Artegon decided to leave it there, the mammals might well recover, in time, then he could attempt to interrogate them. He was worried, if the other mammals on the third planet all reacted to the Slave weapon as these had, the Reptoids would not be able to use their weapon on a large scale, for most of the mammals would simply die of thirst before they could be taken for food. The effect of this would be world-wide plague and render the planet uninhabitable for many tens of years. He would have to ask the scientists to investigate it, if the mammals did not recover.

**********

Two days later, looking up at the massive view screen set in front and slightly above the command crew, Artegon saw the view given by their forward camera. It showed the massive bulk of Phobos, and it now filled the screen. He watched as the forward section of the moon began to disappear, as the Ark slowly began to overtake Phobos. The engineers had set up six cameras on the underside of the asteroid, some of these could well be crushed when the asteroid landed on the moon, they would allow Artegon to check that the computer was following the program correctly, a program input by his chief engineer.

Their computer now sent a command down to their auxiliary engine and it began to generate more power to the forward retro rockets on the Ark, to slow her speed even more. It was preparing to push the asteroid down towards the hard surface of the moon. The Reptoid command crew watched their progress via the views given by their six cameras, fearfully, in case something else went wrong. The time for action arrived, the computer turned on the upper vertical thrusters. Artegon felt their vibrations as they all came on together and he prayed as the thrusters began to push the asteroid down towards the moon's hard surface and soon, they were only a few feet above it, at times their rocky keel even scraped the moon's undulating rocky surface. The computer next turned off the retro rockets, reduced the power to the upper vertical thrusters while using the lower vertical thrusters at their lowest setting to make the operation of landing go smoother. Then the lower thrusters were turned off, followed ten seconds later by the upper thrusters, which in any case, were then only working at their lowest setting. The computer warned all of the Reptoids to hang on tight, for they were landing. Finally, just seconds later, the underside of the asteroid touched down on to Phobos, silently of course, although everyone inside the large rock felt and heard it when one giant piece of hard rock rubbed up against another piece of hard rock that was even larger than the first. Behind the asteroid, if anyone cared to look, a deep wide furrow followed the Ark's progress, but this would only be of passing interest. The Reptoid colonists and crew cheered the final jolt when the Ark finally stopped moving. A number of strong support beams were sent down from the underside of the Ark, by the computer, to prevent the Ark from moving, should the weight distribution within the Ark change suddenly.

The Reptoids, now that the Ark had touched down on Phobos, felt that now they were safe, which of course they were not, Artegon still had a lot more to achieve before they would finally be safe. Of course, they would never be able to lift off again, the Ark was no longer a galactic spaceship, it was a temporary home for slightly less than 1500 beings. They had much to do, so much to ensure that the colony did not suffer a cold and lonely death, far from their home world and also far from Earth. From everywhere within the Ark came the sounds of celebration, phase one of their new commander' plan had been successful, they were safe for the moment. This was emphasized when the power was increased to the lights, for they no longer needed it for their weary thrusters. With the Ark safely down upon the moon, Artegon hoped to be able to pass on to phase two quickly. Artegon was the man of the moment and he was honoured by all, but he was one of those who realised the mountain of problems that were still to be overcome, and the stress that came with it.

**********

On the Ark, and within its largest brig, the crew of the Discovery were beginning to come around, for the effect of the Slave weapon had begun to wear off. They had been there for twelve hours, the reason as to why they were making a complete recovery, because although they had undoubtably felt stressed when subjected to the special high frequency hypnotic sound produced by the Slave weapon, the weapon had not been fully charged up when it had been used against them. Zyclon, the weapon's Reptoid operator, had turned it on immediately the Discovery had come in to range and the power, having been cut off prematurely when the two nuclear armed missiles exploded, meant that it had only been partially charged up. This meant that the effect of the weapon was not only very different to what the Reptoids had expected, but also, its effects had only been temporary. With Artegon busy ensuring the safe landing of the Ark and the wellbeing of the colonists, they were left alone. Food had been left in their cell in preparation for if and when they awoke in to the normal slave mode. The food Sam ordered the others to leave untouched, for he had the beginnings of a desperate plan. Even so, thirst did force them across to a drinking tap where they slaked their thirst, but the Reptoids would not notice this, only that the food had gone untouched.

**********

On Earth, NASA scientists upon the Moon finally tracked down their first Silencer drone, A shuttle was launched from the Moon and the drone was taken aboard it, and soon it was within one of the hanger bays which make up the exterior parts of Moon Base. A short time later and the scientists had worked out which part of the drone called home, and after much trial and error, the frequency they had to use to make it respond. This meant that they had learned how to find the other drones, for when the drones responded, they could home their missiles on to them. One hour later and they had the positions of all of the other drones. As for the Reptoids, with their communications down, they never knew that their Silencer drones were calling to them.

James Bartlett telephoned President Cooper and gave him the good news, Cooper immediately contacted General Waverley at the pentagon. Washington now prepared to take all of the Silencer drones out. The task was given to the MDA, the Missile Defence Agency, they simply locked their missiles on to the drones using the frequency employed by the drones to communicate with the Ark. It was as simple as that; nineteen missiles were launched at the Silencer Drones and two hours later all of the Silencer drones had been silenced for ever. Finally, the people of Earth could listen to their favourite radio station, although some of the devices remained inactive, and they would remain so for some time to come. Plans were being made to replace the laser satellites that were not functioning, but they would have to wait until the alien threat was over, but at least the other satellites were now working and communication with the many bases upon the moon was also possible. The people of Earth now felt that the worst of the war was over, only the leaders and their senior advisers knew otherwise.

**********

The Russian and the Chinese spaceships were now travelling together, the two government had reasoned that it was obviously safer than travelling apart. Each vessel was armed with a laser weapon, something they that had added to their spaceships some time before and without telling the outside world. The Americans knew this of course and had made plans to add such weapons to their own spaceships, unfortunately, the Discovery had launched before this decision had been carried out. Knowing approximately where the Silencer drone was, the Russians and Chinese crews actively searched for it, and they eventually found and destroyed it. Earth was once more able to contact Mars, both its many bases and the robotic devices upon its surface. This ability made the people on Mars feel a little better, but a large cloud hung over the lives of everyone on the red planet, the cloud was caused by the large asteroid and the aliens that used it as a massive space ark.

**********

Back on Earth, things were proceeding nicely. The security council had met and the space powers amongst them had agreed to send missiles, both non-nuclear and nuclear, to the moon to use against the asteroid should it, or any of the alien's spaceships, approach the Earth. This was a dramatic step, for if they were able to defeat the alien invasion, the Moon would have missiles that could be aimed at Earth and this would increase the chances of a nuclear war. Would the nuclear powers return the missiles to Earth or at least position them on the far side of the Moon?

Plans were being drawn up around the world for the construction of larger, more powerful spaceships, they were to be armed with lasers and missiles. These were hardly the Star Trek Enterprise, but for the end of the 21st century they would be better than anything envisioned before on Earth. Of course, they would take time to finalise the designs, to build and equip them, but the aliens seemed to be moving at a slow pace now. However, the governments knew that for the aliens to hang around for four or more years seemed to be fanciful wishful thinking, they believed that soon they must feel the might of this violent interstellar power, and this was seen as an indisputable fact.

On the Moon, Charles Brannigan had teams of workers at the bases digging deeper beneath its surface, to provide shelter that might just protect the people from an attack by the aliens. Preparations for the storing and launching of the missiles were already going ahead. The missiles would be both the mobile Hypersonic cruise type and the mobile Hypersonic ballistic missile. The mood was good, the aliens were still somewhere behind Mars, but they had not as yet showed themselves, why, had the Discovery somehow destroyed the enemy before it too had been damaged or destroyed? The latter now seemed very possible, for otherwise why had Earth not received any further messages from Captain Palmer and his crew, or even seen the Discovery.

Chapter Four

Battle in Space

The Reptoids had managed to repair their communications array, but so far only as far as receiving not sending. Even so, this small victory raised their spirits, they were feeling that they had reached their nadir and that the future would bring more good news. That feeling lasted until they realised that none of the Silencer drones in orbit around Earth were sending their daily message to confirm that they were still operational and finally the Mars drone stopped sending. Only their space telescope was still working and they were plunged in to the depths of depression, their invasion had been successfully repulsed, such an event had never been envisaged. Their enemy were barbarians, almost Neanderthals compared to the advanced Reptoids, Now, without the Slave weapon on the Ark, they were faced with a long and very hard war which could go either way. They also feared that more vessels would soon follow the approaching two space vessels, and with them more of the missiles that had been so successful against them. What should have been a walk-over was turning in to a war of survival. Artegon decided to launch five of his transport vessels, their mission, to destroy the approaching two vessels. He called the crews to the hanger bay and briefed them.

"Reptoids, vessels TS1 to TS5 will launch as soon as I have finished briefing you. You will use your plasma cannons to destroy the two approaching alien vessels, you will open fire upon them the moment that the alien vessels come in to range. You will not allow them to close upon you as it must be assumed that these two vessels will also be armed with the mammal's crude missiles and we cannot afford to lose any more of our spaceships, we will need them in the coming war. You will be able to communicate with us via TS6, it will remain here until we have completed the repairs to our communications array. That should not take us too long, not as we have the spare parts and an excess of engineers."

**********

The Russian and Chinese spaceships were in line abreast and nearing the neighbourhood of Mars when the five transport vessels moved in to their path. The Russian and Chinese crews were quite rightly worried, but as the Russian captain stated to his Chinese counterpart, to turn about would leave their rears exposed to an enemy that had shown that it had no problem in attacking an enemy unable to return its fire. Although they were outgunned, surrender to such an enemy was seen as even riskier than fighting, so, they agreed to continue on towards Mars and prepare for battle. They immediately charged up their laser weapons and prepared to open fire as soon as they were within range, who knew, they might get lucky and take out one of the approaching alien vessels. The Reptoid' commanders did not have the luxury of thinking, they had their orders, to attack and destroy the two vessels. With all their other problems, the aliens had not noticed the Indian spaceship that was less than a week behind the Russian and Chinese vessels and closing, but in any case, they did not have an available vessel to scan and shadow it, let alone destroy it.

**********

Michael Patel watched the seven vessels on the base's telescope as the vessels approached each other and he and the others within the base said a silent prayer for the Russian and Chinese crews, however, he feared that he would see them killed, as he assumed had happened to the crew of the Discovery, He and his team had begun to discuss all the weapons that could be available to the aliens when they turned their attention to the bases on Mars, and Akira Sato had just started to list the obvious weapons that could be used.

"They have powerful energy weapons, if they used them, they could easily destroy the main air lock and even the entire base."

Andreas Georgiadis interrupted his flow, earning him an angry look from the Japanese physicist.

"Only if they do not want the base for themselves Akira, however, if Captain Palmer and his crew inflicted some serious damage on the asteroid, as seems likely now, then they may be in need of our bases. In fact, they may have an urgent need, even an immediate need, to move down here."

"You have a point Andreas, they may be limited in what they can use, any ideas as to what is the most likely weapon?"

Andreas once again quickly jumped in ahead of Akira who shot another look of annoyance his way.

"The most dangerous weapon that we know they possess is the sonic weapon that Captain Palmer reported was used against him and his crew. Many nations on Earth have been experimenting with sonic weapons, the aliens are obviously well ahead of us, they appear to actually possess one of them that can get inside our heads, brainwash us if you like."

The discussion went on for hours before Michael called a halt, for they were all exhausted, but following Captain Palmer's warning, the following morning he had Andreas draw up ways to defend against any such weapon. Of course, there was no way to test his plans as they had no way of getting hold of one of the alien's devices. Traps had also been laid on the approaches to the entranceways to the bases, and all of the preparations seemed to be right out of an old-world boys' adventure story, but Michael thought that against a technologically advanced race, they might just work. Their radio was once again working and contact with Earth was now possible, so Michael told Earth of Captain Palmer's final radio transmission and the important information that it contained. Earth was now warned about the alien sonic weapon and its leaders could take measures to ensure that they were not taken unawares.

*********

As the Chinese and Russian spaceships got ever nearer to the five alien spaceships, the Russian commander had remembered one important point, the weapons on both sides were limited in one important way, by the speed of light. This meant that the Russian and Chinese crews might be able to get one shot off before succumbing to the greater fire from the aliens. However, the Reptoids thought that their enemy only had slow moving missiles, and so they had decided to hold their fire until they were much closer and their enemy had no chance to evade their plasma bolts. Suddenly, two beams of light sped from the earth vessels before the Reptoids were ready for battle, the energy beams travelling parallel and relatively close together, to maximize their chances of scoring a hit. The Reptoids at the far ends of the line of five vessels briefly saw, for just a moment, a bright line of light approaching their position, but they recognised it for what it was.

"TS1, TS2, they have fired two energy bolts at you." They screamed over their radios.

Never having been in an actual battle before, they reacted badly, each captain moving his vessel as he saw fit, for they had never trained together as a flotilla in battle, or even within their own vessels, they were in effect novices. Therefore, their ships went in all directions meaning that two of them collided in space. The laser shots exploded against these two ships, aboard TS1 the hull was breached in the forward section, taking out the command area and killing the captain and his two bridge crew. To stop his vessel from inflicting even more damage to TS2, the chief engineer of TS1 immediately turned off the main engine and used the small auxiliary engine to power the environmental system.

TS2 fared better, the hull was breached amidships by the laser bolt, but it would still be fit for battle, if it had not been enmeshed within TS1. The commander of TS2 also turned off his engines until he had found a way to disentangle the two spaceships, to do otherwise would risk tearing both vessels apart.

The other three Reptoid spaceships were now further apart from one another and they each armed their plasma cannons and turned towards the two earth ships which were even closer now and had sent two more energy beams towards TS4 which attempted to dodge them but failed, one of the energy beams holed its engineering department and killed all of the crew within the department. Luckily the crash doors quickly closed containing the hull breach to this one area of the spaceship.

Unfortunately, the colonizing program had cost the Reptoid civilisation a great deal of money, and corners had been cut in the building of the six transport spaceships. They had been designed as lightly armed transport vessels, to act, if necessary, as ground assault vessels, should any of the mammals survive the initial attack. They had no armour around their hulls, not even on vital parts of the vessel such as the bridge or engineering.

The luck had been with the two earth ships, however that changed when the two remaining Reptoid spaceships, TS3 and TS 5 fired their plasma cannons. The Russian ship was the first to be hit, it exploded in a fireball, caused when the fuel in its fuel tank, there for the return voyage home, ignited. The Chinese vessel managed to dodge the energy bolt heading towards it, but it ran smack in to two more hastily fired plasma bolts, it too exploded in a fire ball, and for the same reason.

The Reptoids now only had TS3, 5 and 6 available for battle. TS1, TS2 and TS4 all had to be towed back to Phobos by their space tug, but only after TS1 and TS2 had been untangled. Using their space tug, they were able to land TS1 and TS2 within the hanger bay. As for TS4, the main damage was not only to its hull, its main engine had been damaged and here near Mars it was unrepairable. They had to use a space tug once again, to tow the stricken vessel back to the Ark and to land it inside of the hanger bay. This all took up valuable time, time that Artegon could have made better use of, such as preparing to attack and overrun the mammal's bases on the red planet.

**********

The deaths of their astronauts were felt by the world, for they now belonged to the world having died fighting for it. Their hopes had been raised when their two ships had taken out two alien vessels, followed closely by a third. Then their luck had changed and the aliens were the only ones left alive on the field of battle. Even so, the Russian and Chinese crews had proven that the aliens were not invincible. Which everyone had assumed, was this why the asteroid was still hiding behind Mars, were the aliens running scared?

One piece of good news came from NASA, it had followed up its earlier success of destroying the Silencer drones by finding the Reptoid space telescope. The MDA despatched a missile that took it out too, the aliens were now as much in the dark about their enemy's movements as the people of Earth were regarding the plans of the aliens.

**********

The three damaged vessels made Artegon want to cry, he had ordered the captains to open fire immediately the enemy vessels came in to range, but they had waited and this was the result. All the four surviving captains of the battle were demoted, but not executed, Artegon did not want to be known for executing four more families. Three of the B crews were now given command of the three intact vessels while the A crews were moved over to the maintenance and repair teams, they could help to repair the damage to the vessels, damage caused because they had not followed orders. Artegon and the chief engineer in charge of the repair bay looked over the three vessels and when they had done Artegon said.

"Get your team working overtime on TS2, it is not badly damaged, take hull plates from TS4 to patch up the hull breaches and have your electronics team check and repair any problems they find amidships or within the forward section, especially the command area. Chief, I want it ready for tomorrow morning's assault on the mammals' bases on the red planet."

"I will get them on to it immediately Commander, their old crew can work all day and all night on TS2, it will be a fitting punishment for not following your orders. As for TS1, we can also use parts from TS4, we should be able to get her back in service no later than by the end of the week. We will have to replace its plasma cannon which was destroyed by the energy beam, but TS4 will not have any use for it, it is so much garbage without an engine. Commander, please understand, neither ship will look pretty, but at least they will both be space worthy."

"I am not running a beauty parade chief, I have been given a war to win, unfortunately, we seem to be losing it right now." Artegon replied grimly.

"You will win the final battle commander, that I am sure of, no lowly mammal will ever get the better of you."

Later that night, Artegon was told that their space telescope had gone off the air, the mammals must have destroyed it too. Feeling the full weight of responsibility that his new rank had brought with it, he decided to put back the attack on Mars until both TS1 and TS2 were working. Therefore, he and his scientists spent the time listening in to the mammals on the red planet and they soon learned quite a lot about the lowly mammals. For one thing they learned the frequency of the radios used on Mars, with their communication array finally back on line. The Reptoids would be able to launch their five transport ships, two of them now armed with a Slave weapon, to enslave anyone within range of a working radio. He should have been feeling upbeat, but reality kept raising its head, yes, the Reptoid victory should have been a certain thing, with their superior technology, now they were fighting a battle of survival because of Bramzs' hesitancy. The spaceships that they had lost, and might lose in future battles, could not be replaced. They could only grow weaker while the mammals grew stronger, using their massive population to construct more and more spaceships armed with their Neolithic missiles. Unless he, Artegon, could give his colonists a quick victory, he knew that they were doomed to lose the war in the end.

**********

The astronomer, James Mitchell, hailing from Scotland, rushed into Michael Patel's ultra-small office in Mars One with news.

"Michael, the asteroid, the aliens have landed it on Phobos!" James Mitchell exclaimed. "It has not landed on the part of the moon that can be seen from Mars, but it is near enough to its western rim, and big enough, for me to see an unfamiliar lump on its side, it must be the alien asteroid."

It took Michael only seconds to agree and to come up with a reason why.

"You may well be correct James, and it might be because Captain Palmer and his crew aboard the Discovery have actually taken out its engines, that is why the aliens have delayed their invasion of Mars and Earth, they have been seriously crippled by the nukes that the Discovery carried."

Michael immediately relayed this news to Earth where a jubilant James Bartlett relayed the news to President Cooper. Cooper immediately released this news to the world press, the good feeling it generated could only be good for his ratings, it would also make the costs of the coming war easy to pass through congress, although even the opposition was now convinced of the need to equip America with more armed spaceships.

**********

With the Ark stuck on the moon Phobos and with its power supplies very depleted, Artegon was no longer able to listen in to the messages between Earth and Mars. But they say that ignorance is bliss and so Artegon was able to smile, for he finally had five vessels ready for battle. He therefore ordered 100 of the Reptoid colonists, ones fully trained in the art of combat by a Reptoid who had never met an enemy in battle, to meet him in the hanger bay, when they were there, he briefed them on their coming mission.

"You have all been trained to fight in hostile environments, now is the time to put that training in to practice. You will board the five transport vessels and launch immediately. The mission of the vessels TS1 to TS3 will be to capture the main mammal base on the red planet. The crew aboard TS1 will use the Slave weapon that has been fitted in to it to subdue the mammals, then, all you will need to do is to round them up. When the base and its mammals are fully under your command, the first squad of TS1 will remain to guard the captured mammals until more Reptoids arrive to take over your duties. Everyone else will proceed on in their vessels to capture more of the mammal's bases."

He now turned to the two other crews.

"Crews of TS5 and TS6, your mission is to capture the second largest base, when it is secure, TS5 will return to the Ark to pick up more of our people leaving its troopers to remain behind to guard the prisoners. On its return to Mars, TS5 you will assist in the capture of the remaining mammal bases. TS6, as you are armed with the Slave weapon, you will stay on the red planet and also assist in the capture of the remaining mammal bases." Artegon said and then went on to the 2nd part of his briefing.

"I do not expect them to be armed with many weapons, certainly no heavy weapons. Having said this, I urge you to take care, they have had the time to prepare for our invasion, who knows what traps may have been set for the unwary Reptoid. I must ask you to not take them lightly, the mammals have already cost us plenty, if in doubt shoot first and always to kill." Artegon smiled and continued on to part 3.

"Things to remember. Do try to leave the base and its environmental systems intact, for we shall need them later as homes as well as bases. Why? Because we need to reduce the power currently being consumed on the Ark. We can only do that by moving some of our people down to the red planet where they can enlarge the mammal's habitations, increase the amount of food produced there and the oxygen produced by the mammal's crude environmental systems."

To say that the Reptoids within the hanger bay were excited would be an understatement, they were all eager to begin what they had all set out to do, to enslave the local populations and to taste the fresh meat of the mammals, for none of them had eaten real meat before. They were also looking for revenge, forgetting the humans who had already died at their hands.

Artegon looked at the Reptoid males before him and in summing up he said.

"Everyone, please bear in mind that you must succeed in your mission, your lives and those of the other colonists will depend on it. Good luck and may the gods look after you."

Artegon returned to the command centre and the five Reptoid vessels launched ten minutes later and were soon approaching Mars. The time for battle had arrived, for Phobos had now cleared the horizon and he would be able to communicate with the five transport ships as they attacked the major bases on Mars.

**********

The scientists and engineers within Mars One watched anxiously as the alien spaceships entered the thin Martian atmosphere, their vapour trails clear for all to see. Michael Patel looked grave as he spoke to everyone within Mars One, those within the command area, over the intercom to those of his people who were elsewhere within the base and to the other Americans and their allies located within Mars Two.

"They are coming, as we knew they would, their weapons will be superior to the few that we possess, but if we stick to our plan then we do have a chance of repulsing them. Good luck everyone, our thoughts here within the Mars One command area are with you all, wherever you are."

He then sent a pre-recorded message to Earth that simply said that they were under attack from the aliens. He smiled, we can now communicate with Earth he said to himself, unfortunately, they are a long way off and cannot do anything but pray for us. Michael had sounded confident as he had spoken to the other Americans and their allies on Mars, however, he secretly wondered if they could actually succeed in repulsing a more technologically advanced race, and if so, for how long and how many people would die in the attempt.

The team within the command area of Mars One watched as the first three vessels changed course and headed towards their base while the other two vessels headed elsewhere on Mars, probably, they assumed, towards the second largest base, the one run by the Russians.

**********

As they approached the two bases, the Reptoids armed both of their Slave weapons and their plasma cannons, although they did not want to use the latter against the actual bases. They would rather use them against any survivors found outside of the bases and who were found to be unaffected by the Slave weapon. The Slave weapons aboard the transports had much less power than the ones aboard the Ark, but for use against the small amount of people they expected to find in each of the bases on Mars, and unprotected as they were expected to be, they would work very well.

The Slave weapon was indeed a type of sonic weapon, when used against a technologically advanced society, it made use of their radios via their communications satellites. In this way the weapon was able to deliver a constant stream of sonic waves that stopped the mind from working. For most of its victims, the sonic attack only had to last for around two minutes, maybe a little longer depending on the strength of the individual's mind under attack, then the zombie-like victim would obey any orders it received, either in person or via their radios, their televisions or even their smart phones.

The first three transport ships approached Mars One but only two of the vessels touched down on the surface of Mars and vessels. TS2 and TS3 each unloaded thirty armed Reptoids, who immediately ran forward to the front edge of the flat ridge which was sixty feet away from the main airlock in to Mars One. Laying down on the hard ground they waited for TS1 to begin their attack using its Slave weapon. TS1 hovered fifty feet above the ground, and it now turned on its Slave weapon. Viewed from the ridge where the Reptoids had landed, only the main airlock of the base was visible, its roof and walls being made of solid Martian rock.

**********

Altogether, there were thirty humans within the Mars One base, not yet a colony, but a medium size research facility. Most of the humans were scientists, but some were engineers, there to build or design whatever the scientists needed, to learn which local minerals could be used, such as molten sulphur and gravel aggregate to make Martian concrete. There was also a doctor, a nurse, both to tend and to watch-over, to learn how humans coped with the long-term life on a low gravity planet. All of them waited for the alien attack to commence and they prayed that they would come through the coming ordeal alive, and then the battle began.

Traps had been laid on the approaches to the airlocks to the bases, the airlocks themselves, the ground around the base and many other places. All of these preparations would never work against the Russians or the Chinese, how could he ever have thought that they stood a chance of working against such the advanced race of aliens that was attacking them. He smiled, sadly he was about to find out the answer to this question, he prayed that they would be enough to see them through the next few minutes. If not, then the aliens would soon be knocking on their door.

Within the base, they heard a soft noise coming from the radio, one that slowly grew in frequency and power. He turned on the intercom and spoke to everyone within Mars One. Looking grim he said.

"Put plan S in to operation and hope that whatever weapon they are about to use is nullified by it."

He then turned off their radio, their WIFI and the intercom, if the aliens had a sonic weapon then he was not about to assist them in brainwashing his people.

Plan S was to defend them against a possible sonic weapon that only worked against organics, not the structure of the base, as there was little they could do if the weapon was for use against the base. Almost everyone had a headset of some sort, either for listening to their favourite singer or musician, a movie or whatever. Those that only had earphones could either make use of the headphones used with the numerous base devices or, on sighting the aliens, they had already retreated down in to the new depths that had been dug beneath the base and shut all the doors leading down there. With everyone kitted out, they donned their headphones or earphones and turned their own particular device on to high volume. To communicate with each other they would now have to write down what they wanted to say, however, if nothing happened to them, then they would be able to say that the weapon, whatever it was, had seemingly failed to work against them because of plan S. Those within the command centre now all said a silent prayer as they looked at the three spaceships, two of them parked six-hundred feet away and the third one hovering above the ground.

When the pilot of TS1 realised that the mammals had turned off their radio, he moved TS1 forward and turned the Slave weapon over to its open mode. After five more minutes had passed, he assumed that the mammals would all be enslaved, all they had to do was to enter through the main airlock, walk in, and celebrate their easy victory.

On the surface of Mars, sixty aliens were laying on top of the flat ridge, just sixty feet away from the base, awaiting the order to advance. They were not affected by the Slave weapon, their specially adapted spacesuits ensured that its sounds did not penetrate the suit's material.

Unfortunately, some of these Reptoids were beginning to panic because of another weapon, one that had been used against them. Their spacesuits were showing signs of dissolving, for Heinz Muller, the German chemist had manufactured a chemical that ate the sort of material that was used in the manufacture the space suits of Earth. The chemical would soon mutate in to a safe state, which was why Heinz could be seen each morning dosing the top of the ridge directly in front of the base with even more of the chemical. That it would work against the alien's spacesuits was of course, unknown, but they had decided to use it as one of a number of defensive tools, just in case it worked. If the aliens had delayed their attack for another week, it would have meant that Heinz would have run short of the materials required to manufacture the chemical, but luck, for once, was on the side of the humans.

The affected aliens ran for their spaceship with their hands pressed against their space suits to limit the loss of air. The remaining unaffected aliens stood up nervously and looked down at the ground, wondering if their suits were also affected.

Ryan Charles and Jonathan Washington, both research scientists involved in environmental research on Mars, were also sharpshooters back home. They were hidden some forty feet from the front edge of the ridge, behind the rocks that covered much of the surface of the opposite ridge, the one which Mars One was buried under. Before them TS1 loomed large, they could see the plasma cannon on its underside, its grey metallic body, its communications array, they could almost step in through its airlock, but they did not allow its near proximity to faze them. They now opened fire with their rifles, the crack of the shots startling the aliens. The two men took out five of the aliens before the others turned and ran, for they could hardly hit the dirt, it was too dangerous, for small holes were appearing in some of their space suits too. As for Ryan and Jonathan, they re-entered the emergency airlock that was set just two feet behind their firing point, disappearing from view just as TS1 opened fire upon them. Energy bolts whistled down to explode on the rocky exterior of the base, luckily the hard Martian rock protected it. As for the two sharpshooters, they hurriedly climbed down the access ladder to safety.

**********

The trooper's leader looked crestfallen, it appeared that the Slave weapon had somehow failed, the mammals were proving to be a harder foe than they had been led to believe. He now reported back to the Ark that they had been repulsed without any of the mammals falling victim to any of their weapons.

**********

The instruments within Mars One had registered the high frequency sound that had swept through the base, but after it stopped, Michael assumed that this part of the attack was over, even so, plan S called for everyone to wait for five minutes for Michael to give the 'all clear'. They watched him for signs that he was being affected by an unseen force as he took his headphones off and then turned off his iPod. He stood there for these five minutes, and when nothing appeared to happen, he signalled for them to take off their headphones and to pass it on to the others waiting nervously elsewhere within the base. Michael now turned to his two sharpshooters who had suddenly appeared in the command centre.

"You two guys, that must have been a close-run thing, and thankfully, the base seemed to have been undamaged by those energy bolts. However, I was afraid that they had got the two of you, you will have to be more careful next time."

"Those aliens will have to be a lot quicker if they expect to nail us Michael, my how they did run." Ryan Charles said.

"Your accurate fire will buy us some time at least, but we are still the under dogs, our chances of survival are still pretty slim."

With the second round going to their team, the humans were feeling very upbeat, but Michael warned the two sharpshooters.

"We may have stopped them this time, but we will not be able to attempt that again. They will probably land one of their ships on top of the ridge and prevent us from leaving via that airlock. They might even attempt to enter through it, although they will regret doing so if they do try to come at us that way."

This brought laughs, for they had all helped in booby trapping all of the airlock outer doors, a small explosive charge would explode outside of the airlock should anyone attempt to gain admittance. Ryan Charles and Jonathan Washington had reset their trap on the emergency airlock that they had used, after they had returned to the base. Outside, TS1 landed alongside the other two alien spaceships, their morale shattered.

"We probably have an hour before they attack again, the first thing that we must do is for one of us to leave by the emergency airlock in the west part of the base. I want two volunteers to go across to the five fallen energy rifles that the aliens left behind and bring back as many of them as possible."

The rifles had been dropped by the aliens when they had been shot and they had partially slipped down the incline that led down to the base. One of the engineers, Peter Richardson, immediately volunteered.

"I will go, we desperately need those weapons, anyway it should be quite a lark." He said in his middle-class English voice.

"We will help you; we still have our suits on." Ryan Charles said.

No one argued, it would be a dangerous mission, one they were only too happy to miss out on. Although Peter and the two sharpshooters had only just beaten some of the others who were also about to volunteer.

"Oh, and please do not follow us on one of the exterior cameras, the aliens could well have hacked in to them."

Michael looked across at their computer expert who nodded.

"Should have thought of that, and if they do, they could watch every move that we make." Karl Zimmerman said as he returned to his computer to ensure that it had not happened so far.

"Remember, keep your radios turned off, they may attempt to use their sonic weapon again, if they actually do have one." Michael warned their departing backs. "And be careful not to trigger any of the booby traps." He added.

It was a long walk through the tunnels of Mars One before they reached the emergency airlock that would take them out in to a gully that ran to the side of the hill beneath which the base was buried, and with Ryan Charles and Jonathan Washington assistance, Peter donned a new lightweight space suit that they were testing on Mars. Ryan clipped a small air tank on to his back and attached his air tube, and he was ready to leave. Jonathan had refilled both of their tanks and they too were ready to go, they were also wearing the new lightweight space suits, they needed the added manoeuvrability they gave, both for this this mission and for their last one. Two minutes later and they were standing outside in the gully, only twenty-five minutes had passed since they had surprised the aliens, Peter hoped that they still had enough time remaining to complete their mission before the aliens returned for the next round.

They bent over double in an attempt to stop being seen, for the aliens were inside their spaceships, which were only 600 feet away from the main airlock, and they ran forward, first moving left, then right, then forward, but always towards the start of the incline and the energy weapons. In this way they had not tripped any of their booby traps, but the outward leg of the mission had taken them two minutes, on the return journey it would seem longer as their backs would be to the alien ships and the top of the ridge.

**********

The Russians inside their base looked out at the two alien spaceships, one of which had landed only 300 feet away from their main airlock. Their instruments also registered the soft sound that began to grow in volume and frequency and they too assumed that it was caused by the Slave weapon. However, they had already put the American plan S in to operation as soon as they sighted the two vessels. When the aliens realised that their enemy had turned off their radio, they too used their weapon in the open mode. After five minutes had passed, the Russians watched, smiles on their faces, as thirty aliens left the vessel that had landed earlier and advanced upon the main airlock. Virtually all the defence they had to stop the aliens from entering the Russian base, except for their Kalashnikov machine guns and the mines that were buried beneath the Martian soil. Mines that they had brought with them for use against the Americans, if necessary, mines that were between the two alien vessels and the main airlock of the Russian base. Base commander, Alexie Ivanov, gave the order.

"Take them out."

The mines were directional, to prevent the base from damage, all the force of the explosions went across the front of the base. One minute later, when the Martian dust had cleared, they looked out at the bodies of half of the alien invaders, as for the survivors, they had turned and ran for their vessels. They radioed the Ark to report the loss of their men and the fact that the Slave weapon had not worked. Artegon felt a cold chill run through his body, their attack was not going well. He then ordered them to wait until he arrived, but to keep a sharp lookout for the mammals and to kill any that left their base.

**********

With his land forces facing defeat, one that would condemn the colonists to a terrible death, that or surrender to the mammals, Artegon decided to take the Discovery down to the surface of the red planet. He would land it in plain sight of the mammals defending the main base and march the crew of the earth spaceship out and threaten to kill them if the base did not surrender. This, he was sure would give him the main base on Mars, for he had been told that the mammals were very emotional and would cave in rather than watch their fellow mammals die in front of them.

**********

Peter, Ryan and Jonathan had still been climbing the gentle incline when they heard a spaceship landing on the top of the hill in front of them, but much nearer than the other alien spaceships. Peter was damned if he was going to return to Mars One without the weapons, he sped up the rest of the incline and grabbed two of the weapons, Ryan and Jonathan were just behind him. In the light gravity they turned and raced for the gully and safety, dodging the many pits and explosives between the incline and their destination. Every moment they expected to hear the sound of an energy weapon, to see it whip by them to strike one of their friends, or to feel a burning red-hot pain when it struck them, but somehow, they were still all right. Still all right when they saw the air lock opening before them and the face of Michael Patel through his own helmet urging them to run even faster. Finally, they were inside the airlock, they saw it closing, they were safe, and they had the five energy rifles dropped by the men who Peter and Jonathan had shot.

Chapter Five

Escape from the Ark

Sam and his crew had slowly recovered, slow enough to realise the condition that they and others were in, especially as Sam remembered succumbing to the alien's sonic weapon. Their cell was much like many other prison cells, except for its lack of a barred window. It was featureless, consisting of three windowless walls and its front wall was composed of metal bars with a grilled door. They were watered, from the tap, but hungry as Sam had stopped them from eating the food, which in any case looked to be rather unappetising. Sam decided that they should feign the same docility that had actually affected them after the sonic weapon had been used on them, he hoped that by doing so, they might get an opportunity to escape, unlikely but just possible. Therefore, when the aliens arrived at their cell, they appeared docile and still unable to do anything, they still could not follow basic orders. Their jailers opened their cell, pulled them to their feet and marched them through level twelve of the asteroid, for this was where the brig was located, to the main elevator. Once inside the elevator they were taken up to level four where they passed through a line of Reptoid colonists, ones who had to be restrained from tearing them apart. They saw little of the Ark on this level, they could well have been inside a large windowless office block for all they knew, they certainly did not have a chance to escape, finally, they arrived in to the large hanger bay. Here they saw that the Discovery was parked there and their spirits rose as they were taken aboard her through her main airlock on level one. They were taken through the upper laboratories and into the rear middle section of the vessel where they were put in to the ship's upper hold, here they left again, alone and unguarded, but with the door to the hold locked.

"What do you reckon they have in mind for us?" Emily asked of anyone.

It was then that they felt the vibrations of the Discovery's lower vertical thrusters as they lifted the vessel off the hanger bay floor and then the rear thrusters came on line to move the Discovery out in to space. Then they felt the vibrations coming from the main engines as they came online and now the vessel headed towards Mars. Strangely though, they did not feel any g-force or loss of gravity, they all realised at the same moment, the aliens had added inertia dampening and artificial gravity, they were aboard a new improved Discovery.

"Sam looked across at Emily and said. "I don't know Emily, but I don't like it. If they are transferring us to another vessel, surely, they could have used a shuttle. The only other destination is Mars, but why would they want to take us there?"

There was no time to discuss these additions to their vessel, things had to be done. Engineers Joel Goldstein and Tomas Martinez smiled, for they knew that they had left a set of tools within this hold, they had done so when they had repaired a small fault in the electrical system, but had not had the time to tidy up after them. With these tools they made short time in unlocking the simple lock on the door and the crew, led by Sam, quietly exited the hold. There were just ten aliens aboard the Discovery, not nearly enough to stop them retaking her, if Sam and the others were careful, but of course, the aliens had weapons.

"If we are thinking about retaking the ship Sam, then we should collect some syringes and quick acting anaesthetics from my clinic, then we will not need to guard any prisoners we might take along the way."

Sam smiled at Emily and nodded. "The clinic it is then, however, we much be quick and quiet, for it will take us out of our way."

Sam looked out of the door to the hold to ensure that no one was about, there was not a sole around. They then descended down to level two, through the empty laboratory and in to the clinic, here Emily collected a number of syringes and enough anaesthetic to put down a herd of elephants.

Also on level two, there was a small armoury of automatic pistols and rifles, curtesy of the pentagon, it was a late addition after the attack on Earth by the aliens. Sam led the way to their armoury and opened the locked door to find that the aliens had not bothered removing the weapons, either that or they had not found them in the short time since they had taken the vessel. They each took out a hand pistol and then Sam re-locked its door. Now they were tooled up, he led the way down to level three and engineering, where the four alien engineers were busy with the unfamiliar engine. The Reptoid engineering crew had left the reactor to run by itself, for they knew nothing about such things, leaving it to the scientists to fret over, there was one on board, but he was on the bridge at the moment.

Sam did not want to use their pistols as the sound of them would warn the rest of the aliens that something was wrong. However, the aliens were built like the Thing out of Marvel comics, and looked to be as strong, to the relatively frail humans. He realised that they would be risking their lives in attacking the aliens, especially hand to hand. But it was not exactly hand to hand, the humans were all wielding heavy wrenches and other heavy tools provided by Joel and Tomas, and they had also caught the Reptoids unaware that they now had company.

Sam and Emily rushed the alien chief engineer, who only saw them at the last second, surprised he turned to defend himself. Sam had explained to Emily how he wanted to play it. Sam feinted to the left, ensuring that the alien concentrated upon him and not the lightweight and soft female, so, Emily was able to crown him with the heavy wrench concealed behind her back. The alien reared up in surprise and pain, allowing Sam to use all of his strength when he swung his wrench. The alien crumpled to the floor, unconscious.

The alien that David and Sarah had chosen to attack was near to the intercom, and to stop him getting to it, Sarah jumped on his back and dug her fingers right in to his eyes, he screamed and grabbed her wrists, almost breaking them, which he would have if David had not swung a large hammer that connected with his jaw and knocked him out.

The two engineers knew exactly how fight dirty; their target had turned towards them allowing Tomas to kick him where, on a human, his crutch would be, and he found it. The alien screamed and crumpled, then Joel used his hammer to knock him out.

Noah and Joseph took on the last Reptoid, who immediately surrendered when he saw his comrades treated in so savage a way. Sam smiled at their victory, he had been confident, but even so, he was thankful that they had come through it unhurt. Looking at the others he said.

"Quickly everyone, we must tie them up and then move on up to the bridge, but we must take care, I saw at least four energy weapons on the belts of the bridge crew."

Joel and Tomas quickly found some cable ties to bind their limbs, some cloth to gag their mouths, while Doctor Emily Smythe-Jones, filled each of the syringes with enough anaesthetic to knock an elephant out. She now injected the four Reptoids with this to ensure that they did not come around too soon and attempt to escape. They carried the four aliens in to a far corner of the hold on level three and left them there, far out of sight of a casual passer-by.

Joel and Thomas returned to engineering to ensure that nothing unforeseen should happen to the Discovery, they were able to track her movements through a viewscreen that showed the forward camera view for the moment.

The others made their way silently up to the bridge, thankfully, the Reptoids thought them worse than useless and so had not checked on them since depositing them in to the hold. On the bridge, the Reptoids were busy, for the Discovery was landing, and when they were finally down, the bows of the Discovery were aimed directly at the main airlock and they were only 200 feet away from Mars One. Artegon had landed the Defender on top of some of the small explosive charges and astride two of the pits which had caved in, exposing them to view, but he ignored the exposed pits.

"Charge up the plasma cannon and target the main airlock." Artegon ordered; an order that was to be only partially obeyed.

As the plasma cannon was charging, Sam and his crew made their move, not knowing that they had saved Mars One from a fatal decompression. They rushed on to the bridge with their weapons out and immediately aimed them at the remaining six aliens, who jumped up in surprise and groaned their dismay.

"Please take your weapons out very carefully, because if we are forced to fire upon you, we will not be able to stop ourselves, not until you are all dead or dying." Sam ordered and was astounded when Artegon seemed to actually understand him.

The Reptoids had all looked to their commander for a lead, who reluctantly said.

"Do as they say, they have the upper hand for the moment, but fear not, as soon as they step outside this vessel, I will order our men to kill them." Artegon replied icily in the alien language.

Four plasma pistols were taken out of their holsters and carefully laid on the ground and then Artegon turned to Sam and said in a heavily accented English.

"Your command of the situation is only temporary Captain, all too soon you and your humans on this planet will once again be our prisoners, so take care how you treat us, for whatever you do will be reciprocated in kind." He then demanded to know. "Tell me, what of my four engineers, are they injured?"

Ignoring Artegon's comments, Tomas demanded that they immediately lift off and eject the aliens in to space, and without spacesuits, a call that the others seemed to approve of. however, Sam would not allow it.

"No, they may be monsters, but we certainly are not." And then he added. "Not yet anyway." And then turning to Artegon, he replied to his question.

"You people are alive and relatively uninjured, they will remain so depending upon your future actions, now move towards the main airlock, you are leaving my ship, now."

Both his crew and the Reptoids were astonished, he was about to let them go!"

Sam looked sharply at his crew and they managed to stay silent as the Reptoids walked towards the airlock. The reason why Sam had taken such an odd decision was that he had seen yet another new console on the bridge, he had also seen the heavy wiring which was alien in origin, he had seen it both in engineering leading away from their main engine and here on the bridge, where it was connected up to the console. The top of the console showed understandable symbols and he immediately realised just what the console was for, an energy weapon, the one that he had seen without realising just what it was. It was fixed to the underside of the Discovery and he had seen it as they had been taken aboard his vessel. His plan, to take off and then to fire upon the three alien vessels parked near to Mars One, and in doing so, destroy the alien's vessels, for there were no others within the hanger bay of the Ark. The only slight problem was that he would only have minutes, or less, to find out how to operate the weapon, aim it and finally, fire it. He was taking a great chance, one that he was even now having seconds thoughts about, but the die was cast he decided, he would play the cards that he had dealt himself.

**********

Putting on their space suits, the six aliens quickly exited the Discovery, all thought of their four comrades from engineering forgotten as they hurried across to the nearest transport vessel, TS1. As soon as he boarded it, Artegon stormed up to the bridge to demand to know why everyone was cowering on the three vessels. His reply was an incomprehensible mumble of excuses. With a look of contempt, he said.

"Take this vessel up, we are going to destroy the alien vessel, if it is still in range that is, if not target the airlocks of the alien base, they can soon be repaired. I want this land battle over, now."

**********

Sam took the Discovery up through the thin Martian air while reversing until they could see Mars One from the forward camera, then he stopped the Discovery, it just hovered there, the people in the Mars base must have wondered what was happening as they looked at the Discovery. He went across to the new console that David was gazing down at it, Sam saw that it showed a similar display on the top of the console to the one on their missile console. He looked anxiously up at the view screen, fear beginning to eat at his insides, for he saw one of the alien vessels was preparing to lift off. His plan had looked so easy when he had first caught sight of the new weapons console sat alongside the missile console. David Brightly looked up at him and said.

"The alien commander already activated the console when we walked on to the bridge, look the top symbol has just stopped flashing, I believe that symbol is stating that the energy weapon has just finished charging up. The other two symbols could be to tell the computer just how powerful a blast we require, either the small symbol or the large one, when we choose, it should go on to targeting."

The symbols on the console did indeed look to be as he had described and Sam smiled and he did as David had suggested, he pressed the 1st of the two symbols, the larger one. The screen immediately split in to two, it showed the ground below them and the air in from of them. Sam touched the ground view and it then showed the ground view ahead of them, including the alien ships. Sam touched the alien ship that was even now lifting off, and a bullseye immediately targeted the ship. Two more symbols flashed on, one smaller one to the left and one larger one to the right. Sam decided to opt for the larger symbol on the right of the console and he pressed it. They each felt the vibrations as a bolt of plasma shot from the weapon and they heard it whistling down through the air and then it struck TS1, even as it began to move away. TS1 seemed to hang in the air for a brief moment before it exploded and its remains crashed down on top of TS2, destroying it too. Sam and his crew were silent, they had just killed up to sixty aliens in seconds, including the alien commander.

"Their invasion must be over now, surely." Sam said as he targeted the third alien vessel and seconds later it too was a mass of melted or broken parts.

Sam decided to land back down in front of Mars One, he wanted rid of their four alien prisoners, they were far too dangerous to leave aboard the Discovery, in any case, he also wanted to ensure that everyone down there was okay.

The team at Mars One were rejoicing, somehow, Captain Palmer and his crew had destroyed the three alien vessels that had threatened their lives. When Sam and his crew walked down the ramp that led from the main airlock, with their four prisoners, everyone asked a question, making a jumble of words. Sam, though, did not attempt to reply to any of the jumbled questions, instead, he asked his own question.

"Michael, are there are more of the alien ships on Mars, or is that the lot?"

"Two more of their spaceships headed over to the Russian base, unfortunately, Sam, we have no way of knowing if they are okay, we have turned off all of our radios, to ensure that their sonic weapon did not work against us."

"You received my transmission Michael, thank God. The aliens used their weapon against us, luckily, our two nukes took out their engines at about the same moment, so that we only got a small dose of it. We were incapable of thought for the first twenty-four hours, however, when we came around, we carried on acting like zombies and they did not bother to bind our hands, which is how come we were able to re-take the Discovery. The weapon that we used is one that they fitted, seems that they are short of ships and power, which is why they did not simply zap your base from space. Their asteroid is grounded on one of the moons for good, their bid to take Earth away from us is just about over. Well it will be after we have taken out their last two spaceships." Sam replied and then he turned to his crew, who were all talking to one or more people from the base, and he said.

"Come on team, we still have two more alien spaceships to destroy." He then turned to Michael and said.

"Do not use your radio until we are done Michael, we do not want the aliens listening in on your call and then warning the other two alien ships."

They went back aboard the Discovery and were soon heading for the Russian base, where the aliens were still huddled aboard the two transport ships waiting for Artegon to appear and save the day. As the Discovery appeared over the horizon, their hopes were raised, but instead of landing, the Discovery targeted and destroyed the last two of the alien transport vessels. Sam immediately called the Russian base and updated them, in the background he could hear rejoicing as his words were translated in to Russian, the Americans had somehow triumphed in this very uneven battle, this was cause for joy and also some disquiet amongst the Russians and later the Chinese. However, their two spaceships had each fought valiantly, giving Sam and his crew the time that they had needed to get over the effects of the Slave weapon. This had been a combined effort, hopefully, their leaders would take note.

**********

On the Ark, all contact with their vessels had been lost, and Grappon A'Tilla rightly assumed that something terrible had happened on the surface of the red planet. He was so angry that he had to physically stop himself from looking for the original crews of the transport vessels and killing each and every one of them. Once again, the colonists have been let down by those who had trained for war, only a miracle could save them now, for with no spaceships, his people had nothing to look forward to except a cold dark death, that or a humiliating request for assistance from the mammals. But how would they respond, some of their people had died, their expensive communication devices and spaceships destroyed, would they agree to help them or simply wipe them out?

**********

Sam contacted the Moon and put Charles Brannigan in the picture.

"Charles, the alien threat is over for the moment, we destroyed the engines that powered the asteroid with the two nukes, however, they somehow managed to land the asteroid on Phobos, an exhibition of their expertise. We have just finished destroying the rest of their spaceships so they are not going anywhere fast, however, there are at least 1000 aliens still alive aboard the Ark, and I should think that as of now they are a mite angry. As they did not land on the side that can be seen from Mars, they will never get to see much of Mars, however, Earth will appear in their view from Phobos for up to three times each day. Who knows what an advanced race could manufacture, given sufficient time? A close watch will have to be mounted from Mars to ensure that a weapon of an advanced nature is not launched against Mars or Earth."

Whoops and celebrations could be heard coming across the radio, as for Brannigan, he was temporarily in shock, for he never expected the Discovery to be victorious. Before he could reply, Sam added.

"There is also a chance that the aliens have managed to send a message to their home world asking for assistance, so please tell our glorious leaders that the time to sit back on their backsides has not arrived, not yet anyway."

Finally, Brannigan managed to say.

"That is fantastic news Sam, news that I did not even dream of receiving, everyone here on the Moon thanks you and your crew for doing the impossible. When you return home, you and your crew will be treated as the saviours of Mankind, whatever you want will be yours. As for the remaining aliens, I will get back to you, in the meantime land near Mars One and enjoy a few days of R&R."

The people of Earth were out on the streets rejoicing when they heard the news, for they had won the war against everyone's wildest expectations, proving to some that God was on their side. Those in the know were worrying if perhaps the celebrations, due to a misguided release of some of the fact by their leaders, were a little premature.

Chapter Six

Battle above Mars

Sam was correct in worrying that the Reptoids might have sent out a distress signal. For A'Tilla had indeed sent a request for assistance. He had done so immediately after the two nukes had exploded against the engines of the Ark, for he had realised when the lights went out temporarily, to return dimmed, that the Ark had been mortally wounded. In answer to his message he was astounded when a large space cruiser arrived one hour after Sam had spoken with Charles Brannigan.

For it had been 120 years since the Ark had left its home world, and since then the Reptoid technology had advanced by leaps and bounds. They had improved their hyperdrive engines and they were now in common use. The time taken for long voyages, such as the one made by the space ark, had finally shrunk down to mere days. A space cruiser, named the Retribution, had been sent to check on the colony, they had got A'Tilla's message while they had been bound for the Sol solar system. The gods had once again changed their allegiance, once again the people of Earth faced imminent death and destruction.

During their initial conversation over the radio, the captain of the Retribution mentioned, amongst other things, that his cruiser was equipped with the latest hyperspace engine and a more powerful plasma cannon.

A'Tilla felt that superior weapons did not a victory ensure, and he immediately reported to the captain of the space cruiser of the catastrophes that had happened here in the Sol solar system. He reported on the nuclear armed missiles possessed by the mammals and also their non-nuclear missiles. Of how the previous two commanders had lost the battle not because of the aliens' weapons, but because their warriors had not shot on sight, but had wanted to get up close to their intended victims.

**********

Sam heard the whole of this conversation in English, for Artegon had installed a translation app in to their computer, so that he could continue to listen in to his enemies. Joseph had discovered it as he had checked their computer for any additions made to it by the Reptoids, ones that could jeopardise the security of the Discovery.

Sam sunk down in to his pilot's chair and sighed, things had just got very much worse, they now had an even more advanced enemy to fight. He used their laser communications centre to call the Moon and he told them of the arrival of a starship and that Brannigan should prepare Earth for the alien's arrival. He advised them to have more nuclear armed missiles ready for launching from the Moon and to prepare to nullify the effects of the Slave weapon, and by whatever means they could devise. There was also the problem of the powerful energy weapons that the newcomer would certainly possess, by itself it could probably defeat the combined militaries of Earth.

On the Moon and Earth, the morale amongst those in the know was given a hammering, until people like Bartlett and Brannigan railed against them. More missiles were sent to the Moon, drones were sent towards Mars to give Earth an early warning of the coming of the Reptoid starship. Using the laser communications system, a message was sent to the Kolkata using a tight beam, the Indian government hoping in this way to stop it being intercepted by the alien vessel. Somehow, the message was received by its intended recipients, thanks to the British equipment installed on both the Kolkata and the Discovery. The message was sent in the Tamil language, following a message from Michael Patel telling of the security measure employed in this part of the solar system, which in turn followed his learning that the Kolkata was on the way. It was in the Tamil language as the captain of the vessel was from the south eastern part of India where this language was spoken. The message warned them of the starship and ordered the crew to take the Kolkata to the moon Deimos and once there, to join up with the Discovery. The Kolkata was only a day away from the Martian moon when it received its new orders.

**********

Sam realised that his new peashooter, curtesy of the aliens, would not be enough to defeat the new commander with his starship, who would not give them an inch, he would probably just open fire from behind the safety of his shields, if he had any, or his thick armour and of course, making use of his greater speed and manoeuvrability. It was at this moment that a message was received on their own laser communications set and this time the message was in Greek, NASA also having been told by Michael Patel of this security measure. It told them of the approach of the Kolkata, of its hanger full of missiles that it intended to share with them and that they should rendezvous with it at the Martian moon Deimos. Their morale immediately improved, the odds were still against them, but at least they would have some proven weapons to use against their enemy.

As for the Reptoid starship captain, he needed to find the Discovery, not that he was concerned about its presence, he told himself, he merely wanted to erase the stain on his people, one that was caused by the mammals on that spaceship. He assumed that the vessel was either hidden somewhere on the planet's surface, or, that it was hiding behind the moon Deimos, unfortunately, the Reptoid scanners were rather basic, even if they surpassed those of Earth. He was in fact concerned that if he put his nose near to the moon, he might get it shot off, and his own vessel's armour was not thick enough to stop an energy bolt from piercing his vessel's hull. Unfortunately, for the Reptoids, centuries of having no serious enemies to fight had turned the captains of the Reptoid space fleet in to no more than bus drivers. Luckily, his 1st officer thought of a plan to tempt the Discovery from wherever it might be hiding.

**********

The day started with the same fear, the invasion of Earth by an advanced race who had no problem with the destruction of the human race, feasting upon the humans on Mars and those upon the Moon, followed by the remainder of the human race. As Sam walked on to the bridge, he was greeted by a tired David Brightly, who was ready for a few hours shut-eye. It was now that they received a distress call on the radio, which was strange following the arrival of an enemy starship, for all the bases knew of it and that the call might be overheard by their enemy.

"Captain Palmer, this is Command Chang of the Chinese Peoples base on Mars, we desperately need your assistance. One of our Mars Cats has broken down in the middle of the Chryse Planitia, map reference 29.5° north, 310.3° east. Unfortunately, our second vehicle is non-operational at the moment so we cannot rescue him. There is only the driver, please help him or he will die, for his Cat has developed a leak and his air is running out fast. Unfortunately, the other bases are too far away from his position to send help, you are his only hope."

"Okay, Commander, we will see what we can do." Sam replied though just how he was not sure.

Sam was unwilling to risk the Discovery, not with it being one of only two spaceships available to Earth to fight the good fight. However, the moon Phobos, and therefore the starship, was now on the other side of Mars to the Martian moon Deimos, behind which the Discovery was hiding. The Chryse Planitia was directly beneath the Discovery and he decided to go for it, it would not only help inter-nation co-operation, but after the Chinese spaceship had gone down fighting, he felt that he could not refuse their request.

Donning a space suit, he had David take the Discovery down through the thin Martian atmosphere and when it was close enough, Sam took one of the chariots out of the hanger bay, and headed for the surface of Mars. He soon caught sight of the stranded Cat and headed for it, setting the chariot down near to the Cat. Nothing else was in sight of the Cat, the risk of danger seemed to be minimal, so, he walked quickly across to the Cat, opened the airlock and one minute later he stepped in to the small cabin. Before he knew just what was happening, he was dragged further in to it by two large Reptoids, it was a trap and he had just walked in to it with his eyes wide open.

The crew of the Cat were of course all dead, murdered seconds after being forced to give their Reptoid captors details of the other bases on Mars, the name and rank of the human in command of the human spaceship, and finally, its name. The Reptoid in charge of these murderous thugs had used these details to call the Discovery and beg for its help. Only when he had captured Sam did he report back to the starship captain that the operation had gone as planned, and that the mammal's vessel had arrived and was two miles above them.

David heard the call and immediately headed back to Deimos, arriving behind it well before the starship arrived, which once again decided to not risk being damaged by the American vessel that had, so far, been victorious. The problem faced by the modern members of the Reptoid race was that they had only gone up against non-technologically advanced alien races for almost two centuries. The only exception was the time that they had developed their Slave weapon, and that had been against the other race on their home world, now no more, and that had been many centuries ago. They were on a losing streak and were unlikely to break it unless they found a commander bold enough to risk all.

As for Sam, he was taken back to the Reptoid starship aboard an alien shuttlecraft, as their prisoner. As soon as he left the shuttlecraft, his space suit was stripped from him and then he was marched to the bridge of the vessel. Here he found that the Reptoid captain was in a hate filled rage, he walked across to Sam and aimed a hard punch at his Sam's chin. Sam, not expecting such an action on the part of the commander, only managed to move partially out of the way, the punch still hit him and caused him to stumble backwards in to the Reptoid Guard. The Reptoid commander glared at him and said in English through a translation device, a smaller version having just been fitted around Sam's head.

"Your species is of the lowest form; how dare you defy the needs of your betters and murder our proud people?"

One thought ran quickly through Sam's mind as he rubbed his jaw, that he was the sole representative of the human race on board this alien starship, and he was not about to let the human race down, no matter what the consequences, so he replied in kind, angrily, eyes blazing, his voice loud.

"Betters? We did not murder anyone, we just responded to your own people's murderous attack upon us, and our one small spaceship destroyed eight of your vessels, and the asteroid, although all of them were better armed than our vessels. We are not the lower form, currently yours is Captain, in fact, you have regressed so far that you are currently back in the primaeval slime from whence your race emerged so many eons ago."

The Reptoids within hearing distance, heard the translation of Sam's remarks and screamed out their anger and made to move forward to tear Sam apart, they were only held back by their commander. As for their exulted commander, he pulled out his plasma pistol and aimed it at Sam's head, who responded by standing straight while looking the Reptoid straight in to his slit-like black eyes.

"Shoot then Reptoid, that is all your species is capable of, cold blooded murder against an unarmed victim." Sam cried out valiantly while praying that the creature would hold its fire.

Feeling shamed by these words, the Reptoid captain raised the stakes in an attempt to prove Sam's words false.

"You insult us again mammal, well we will see if you are as brave as your words, you and I will fight to the death, our arena, within the Ark that you crippled, our audience will be the colonists, now no longer living with the constant fear of death, and all thanks to my prompt arrival. Soon they will leave the Ark, when your life-form has been wiped off the surface of the planet that you call Earth, and start a new colony there comprising only of the Reptoid people."

"A fight to the death is fine by me Reptoid, your defeat will be a suitable intro to the destruction of your pitiful invasion fleet. You see, Reptile, even now my people await your arrival with anticipation of another glorious victory against a murderous foe, an enemy without any trace of morality." Sam scoffed although he knew that what he had said was probably not true.

Sam was nearly lynched when the colonists had heard this second translation, only the shame felt by the captain saved his life, Sam hoped that his death had not merely been deferred until later in the day. He was taken to the starship's brig and later had a rather unappetising meal followed by sleep when the lights went off. The following morning, the commencement of which was marked by Sam as when the lights came back on, he was given a gruel like breakfast, which tasted like soggy cardboard, and then taken to the Ark aboard a shuttlecraft. On arrival at the Ark he was taken down to the recreational area on level eight where the fight was to be held, he was escorted through a mass of angry Reptoids to a large arena, a large area was still being roped off as he arrived. It was here that the starship captain was to meet him in mortal hand-to-hand combat. The arena was now ready, and Sam was shoved against its ropes and then told to climb over in to the extra-large boxing ring, although this one would not come with an umpire.

Captain Mnaza, his Reptoid opponent, suddenly appeared from amongst the large audience to the cheers of the Reptoid colonists, who quickly moved aside to let him through, and as quickly moved back to form an impenetrable wall of muscle, anger and hatred. In fact, the audience screamed their hatred of the mammal and all of them wanted to see their enemy die a slow and painful death. Mnaza was dressed in shorts and a tee-shirt, this showed off his muscles that rippled under his leathery skin.

Sam was dressed in his uniform, not having been given the option to change in to more appropriate clothing, so, the crowd could not see his form that was concealed beneath his clothes. He also did not have any shoes on, having taken his weighted magnetic boots off, for to have kept those on would have made his movements far too slow in the fight ahead.

Working in space meant that he worked out every day, to stay both fit and healthy. This meant that he had not been intimidated by his heavily built and well-muscled opponent, on the contrary, he thought that he had a fair chance of coming through the ordeal a winner, especially as his opponent was so overconfident as to the outcome. Also, he suspected that Mnaza did not work out, probably because the starship had artificial gravity, the captain did not feel the need to do so, and the extra bulk around the captain's waist was there for all to see.

When Mnaza was standing inside the ring, Sam asked.

"When I beat you Reptoid, will I be allowed to go free, to return to the surface of Mars near to one of the bases?"

His words brought forth a loud reply from the audience, incensed by his words and only the guard around the ring held them back. Mnaza waited for the relative quiet to return before replying.

"Mammal, you will not leave this ring alive, and in any case, this is not about you, this is about revenging the slur that you cast upon the Reptoid nation." Mnaza snarled and then his face changed, grew softer. "However, mammal, I do not want you to suffer, kneel before me and I will slit your throat and end your suffering now."

"Reptoid, you took the words out of my mouth, surrender to me and allow me to leave and spare yourself a painful death, I will not think worse about you." Sam replied in his best sympathetic voice.

"So be it mammal, let the lesson begin." Mnaza snarled angrily.

He opened a beautiful intricately decorated slim wooden case that had just that second been handed to him, and after opening it, he pulled out two long and evil looking knifes. One knife he threw to Sam, the other he kept, throwing the box back out of the ring where one of the Reptoid's caught it with a cry of delight that was echoed around the entire area when the Reptoids saw the type of knives that Mnaza had chosen. Mnaza smiled across the large arena at Sam and said.

"We begin mammal, prepare to meet whatever god you worship."

With that he moved quickly forward and brought the knife round in a slashing motion that cur through Sam's shirt but just missed his skin, for Sam had hastily leapt backwards to safety. Mnaza laughed, an evil throaty noise and came on again only just missing Sam's body as Sam once again backed up.

"Stand still mammal and die a quick painless death, do not prolong your suffering." Mnaza said gloatingly as he feinted left and moved right, but again Sam moved out of reach of the evil looking knife which seemed to have his name written upon its blade. The next minute was full of such moves from the Reptoid, with Sam being happy to just stay on the defensive, to stay alive, or so it seemed to the Reptoid. It was at this moment that the Reptoid made an error in judgement, disgusted at Sam's lack of aggression, his moves were becoming sloppier as he looked forward to a quick victory over this poor excuse for a male creature, and this allowed Sam to get inside his defence. Sam did not use his knife to kill his opponent, for to do so he believed, would lose him the end-game, instead, with a lightning fast change of hands, the knife now in his left hand, he thrust his rigid right hand upwards, fingers stiffened, in to Mnaza's unprotected throat, striking just below his jaw. This unexpected attack caused Mnaza to choke violently in pain, and as Sam withdrew to safety, he slashed the Reptoid's across his right wrist as it was swinging back towards him, causing the Reptoid to drop his knife and cry out in pain.

As the Reptoid looked at Sam, stunned by the suddenness of the attack, Sam slipped by him and putting an arm around the Reptoids neck while digging a knee in to the Reptoid's back.

"On your knees Reptoid." Sam ordered as he forced the bewildered Reptoid to his knees with his sharp knife now at the Reptoid's throat.

"Concede defeat Reptoid and I will spare your life." Sam demanded.

"Never mammal, kill me for I concede nothing to the likes of your kind." Mnaza cried out bravely, but foolishly.

Mnaza grabbed Sam's wrist and attempted to pull the knife away from his throat, but much to his surprise and now rising fear, he found that he was unable to move the point of the knife from away from him. Sam now countered this move by allowing the point of the knife to draw blood, red blood, Mnaza was now sure that death was only seconds away as Sam looked at the stunned and suddenly quietened crowd and then he called out to them.

"Give me back my spacesuit and then take me down to the planet's surface, allow me to return to the main human base, or else lose your brave captain, one who certainly does not deserve to die, not like this."

Sam was hoping that his words would see him returned to Mars One, where angry words and violence on his part would only see him die, torn to pieces by an angry mob. Luckily, for Sam, Grappon A'Tilla moved to save the life of Mnaza, for he believed that too many Reptoids had already died, he walked forward and said in a loud voice so that all could hear him.

"You have won your freedom mammal; we need our captain alive to deal with your kind. As for you, we can always kill you tomorrow."

It finally occurred to A'Tilla that their ultra-modern technology, especially the Slave weapon, had prevented them from reacting to events that none of them could ever have imagined happening, for they had relied on their superior technology far too much. It was something that he would have to think more about, when he had the time, but now he had a more pressing matter and turning to one of the security men who were keeping the crowd at bay he said sneeringly.

"Take the mammal back to the hanger bay, issue him with a small sized space suit and then have a shuttlecraft return him to the main mammal base on the red planet, that way we will know where to find him."

When the translation reached Sam's ears, he could not believe that he appeared to have won through, however, he would wait until he was with his friends before celebrating his victory. He took his knife away from the Reptoid's throat and stepped back, away from his beaten adversary while looking anxiously at the angry crowd, who were pressing in on the ropes all around the arena. One of the security guards opened a way out of the arena, while another security man, one ordered to ensure Sam's safety, beckoned him through the gap. Sam dropped the knife and followed the guard away from the arena, while keeping an ever-watchful eye on the even closer hostile Reptoids. The Reptoids followed him as far as the door of the recreational area before stopping there and jeering as he entered a nearby elevator. Their jeers were more anger though, should he ever fall in to their hands again, he knew that he would not escape with his life, not a second time. The remainder of the journey up to the hanger bay was uneventful, that is until he arrived at the shuttlecraft, then the guard turned to him and said sneeringly.

"You have managed to escape us this time mammal, however, the next time we meet you will not be so lucky, then you will die and I shall feast upon your flesh, look after it for me."

The guard laughed evilly, pulled off the translation device that was fixed to Sam's head and pushed Sam through the open door, a stunned astronaut could not believe his ears, the Reptoids were cannibals, ones who saw nothing wrong in eating another sentient being.

Forty minutes later, the shuttlecraft set down near to Mars One and seconds later a weary human was knocking on the main airlock door of Mars One. Michael Patel could hardly belief his eyes, for Sam had somehow escaped from their enemy with his life. He worried as he opened the outer airlock door that maybe Sam had been brainwashed by the aliens and then returned to sabotage their resistance. However, one look in to Sam's eyes, after Sam had taken off his helmet, was enough to reassure Michael that Sam was okay. Once inside the base, he was made to tell them just how he had been returned alive and when Sam told his tale, stunned silence followed, one broken finally when Michael said.

"I think you deserve a drink Sam; someone find a bottle of alcohol; I know there must be one somewhere."

Andreas Georgiadis immediately went to his small cubicle and brought back a bottle of single malt Scotch whisky, one that he had been saving for his birthday, pouring out a generous measure he handed the glass across to Sam, who drunk it down and then after sighing contentedly, he asked for seconds. They then talked about the Reptoids and especially the last words of the Reptoid guard. It was Veronika Babacina who stunned them when she said.

"Maybe protein is in short supply on their home world, and strictly speaking, can we term them as cannibals as they appear to be Reptilian rather than Mammalian."

"Veronika!" Peter Richardson exclaimed, and the discussion then centred on this point.

**********

The spaceship Kolkata had arrived at Deimos to find the Discovery waiting for it, after greeting each other they began the serious business of transferring half of the missiles across to the Discovery. Although the missiles were weightless in space, due to the lack of gravity, they still retained their mass, therefore, David made use of their chariots, just to get them moving and then when in position, to stop them. The whole operation took them six hours, six hours during which their enemy could appear at any time. With this task completed, the two exhausted crews demanded a rest. However, Earth now had two Discovery class spaceships in orbit around Mars, both of which were fully armed. The following day they prepared to set off for the moon Phobos, they needed to finish this war now, to give Earth some breathing space and to prove to the Reptoids that the people of Earth would not yield to them, only then would the threat of invasion be lifted, at least for a while. Then, given enough time, the scientists of Earth could design better weapons for the defence of Earth, and the nations of Earth could make preparations to build a united world space fleet, maybe. David now called Mars One to ensure that the bases on Mars were still in one piece and their occupants alive, he was answered by Sam.

"David, is everything okay up there?"

"We are fine Sam, but what are you doing at Mars One? I thought that the Reptoids had captured you when their starship arrived over your location." David replied joyfully.

"They did, but I managed to get them to release me, it's a long story, I will fill you all in later. Right now, tell me, have Michael's family arrived?"

"Yes, they are here and have come baring gifts, why?"

"Never mind that for the moment, put Noah or Joel on the line, we need to speak without being understood by our friendly neighbourhood aliens." Sam said motioning for Karl Zimmerman to come over to the radio.

Moments later Noah came on the line and asked.

"What is it Sam?

Putting his hand over the microphone Sam said.

"Ask them in Hebrew what plans they've made for the near future."

This question was duly asked and the answer in Hebrew came back.

"The Kolkata and the Discovery are going to force a battle with the alien starship, we are planning to head for Phobos, as it will soon be at its nearest point to Deimos, we just decided to get an update from Mars One first." Noah replied.

"Good idea, but first pick me up, with the Kolkata in position behind Deimos and you at action stations, it should be possible, and their captain is probably still on the Ark, we might be able to catch them napping." Sam said.

David was not sure about Sam's decision to come back aboard, but with the Kolkata riding shotgun he reckoned that they could pull it off, so he signed off and resumed his seat in the pilot's chair and informed the Kolkata of the plan. The captain and crew of the Kolkata were also worried about exposing the Discovery with no chance of running back behind the moon, what with the starship nearby, but they agreed to be ready to open fire should the starship make another appearance. Captain Raxit commented that the Discovery was very much like the proverbial goat, with the starship taking the part of the Tiger. He warned his crew that they needed to remain alert for the starship's appearance, for they would have to fire their nuclear armed missile almost immediately on sighting the enemy vessel.

**********

In fact, Mnaza was still on the Ark, he was being lectured by Grappon A'Tilla on the problems faced by the colonists marooned within the Ark and his fears for their survival. Mnaza smiled for he had some good news for A'Tilla.

"Consul A'Tilla, fear not, the repair ship Pallas is on its way here. I did not tell you before as the home world is in the depths of the deepest financial recession ever, and there were many who were against the added expense that the mission would cost the people of Reptoid. I had to call in a lot of favours before its voyage was finally approved, its arrival is imminent and it carries with it the only two engines left in existence that have the power to make your vessel mobile once again. You see, the expansion program has been cancelled due to the expense, now we just mine the asteroids and moons already under our control. Anyway, enough of that, once the engine has been installed and you have full power, we can go on together to attack and rid space of the annoying space vessel Discovery. Then it will be the turn of the mammals on the red planet, with them out of the way you can land a large quantity of the colonists there, they can upgrade the facilities and turn it in to a proper base. Our way will then be clear to take over the mammal's bases on their planet's moon where we will be ideally placed to finish the last of the Reptoid colonisations on the mammal's planet. With the Discovery destroyed, they will not dare to launch any further vessels, and should they launch any missiles at our bases on the moon, my starship will destroy them even as they leave their atmosphere. Once the bases on the moon have been upgraded, we can take our time in ridding your new home world of the billions of the vermin that infest it. Ask your colonists to have patience, they and their children will soon be walking on the surface of their new home world."

"Their morale will be lifted by your words Captain, but I implore you to proceed carefully, for until the Ark is once more capable of flight, you are the colonists only chance of staying alive. If the mammals destroy your vessel before then, then we will be lost, we will be cut adrift by the planet Reptoid to fare as best as we can. I implore you to take care should the mammal's spaceship attack your vessel, which they might after all of the successes that they have enjoyed against us. Keep a distance between you, use your greater speed and fire upon them immediately they are sighted."

"I will do as you advise Commander, I have learned the lesson taught me by the Discovery's captain, the next time we meet, he will be the one to concede defeat when his vessel is holed and lying motionless in space with his crew dying all around him." Mnaza declared boldly.

**********

The Discovery did not land on the surface of Mars, instead it hovered two miles above the surface while Noah took another of the space chariots down to the surface of Mars, collected Sam and returned to the Discovery, which quickly shot off upwards in to the relative safety of space. David took the Discovery back to the moon Deimos where it re-joined the Kolkata and waited to see if the alien starship would appear, it did not. Sam gave everyone the shortened version of his capture and escape, then he went across to the Kolkata, Here, he spoke to Aaron Raxit, and after discussing the options they both agreed that the decision that had already been made was the correct one, to attack now. For it was obvious to everyone that to hang around near to their enemy, but to do nothing, would be to put themselves in danger without the possibility of improving the situation. Either they must run back to Earth, hoping that the alien starship would not attack them, or they took the fight to the aliens. To run would do nothing for the morale of the crew or of those back on Earth, it would however, do much for the wilting morale of the Reptoids. Therefore, they decided that the only option open to them was to take the fight to the aliens. The Martian moon Phobos had already shown itself to the west of Mars and was drawing nearer to them with every second. Sam's mind next focused on the speed advantage their enemy had over them, and he mentioned this to Aaron.

"The alien vessel is sure to use its greater speed, given that it possesses a hyperspace engine. If it does enter hyperspace as it moves forward in its attack upon us, as soon as it does so, you turn 45° to starboard and I will turn to 45° to port. It is now that one of us must drop off one of the nukes. We then both make use of our emergency boosters and when the alien vessel returns to normal space, our not being where we should be just might throw them long enough for the missile to be homed in on them."

Aaron thought this over for a moment and then agreed.

"Okay, Sam, sounds like a plan, although it counts on your suppositions being correct. Which one of us is to attempt to take them out?"

"Well, the Discovery already has some points on the scoreboard, so I am willing to allow you to make the first attack. As soon as the alien vessel shows itself, I will send two of our non-nuclear armed missiles their way, in an attempt to draw their attention away from the real attack."

And so, Sam returned to the Discovery and then the two spaceships from Earth set course for the Martian moon Phobos.

The moon Phobos drew ever nearer, Sam knew that both the Ark and the starship would soon come in to view as the moon moved around the planet and he expected the starship to move towards them as it began its attack, what other choice did it have.

**********

Captain Mnaza was astonished when he saw two Discovery class spaceships heading towards Phobos, obviously planning to attack the defenceless Ark and his starship, the Retribution. Where had the second vessel come from, when had it arrived? He assumed that the new vessel would have a full complement of missiles, and that some may have been sent across to the Discovery, this made them dangerous if a battle was fought at the slower maximum speed of the two earth ships. He knew that battle was unavoidable, for what other choice did he have, to run from two Neolithic spaceships would see him relieved of his command the moment that he gave such an order. However, the odds were on his side, as it had been on the side of the Ark and its spaceships. His vessel was far in advance technologically of the two alien vessels and he reasoned that by using his vastly superior speed, he would be able to get the jump on the them, allowing him to use his superior weapons. He would swoop in on them, open fire on one of them and then speed away before the survivor could retaliate. Their missiles would not be given the chance to home in on him, he decided, victory would be his, this evening he would be celebrating the end of the mammal's space fleet.

Captain Mnaza did not waste time, he took his starship in to long looping curve though hyperspace for just a second before returning it to normal space, this he had calculated would put the sterns of two enemy vessels facing his plasma cannon. His finger on the trigger, as it were, he prepared to lock on to his target, except when he exited hyperspace, they were not there, they had somehow out-manoeuvred him and instead, he had to use his plasma cannon to destroy the two incoming missiles. This small triumph was the last thing he would ever know, for the nuclear armed missile from the Kolkata now struck the starship and micro-seconds later the Reptoids aboard the Ark witnessed the total destruction of their starship, of their hopes, of their dreams for a glorious future, for any future.

Aboard the Discovery, the sight meant that the threat to their families, friends and countries was put on hold, for who knew what the Reptoid response would be to this defeat back on their home world. Sam immediately called Charles Brannigan at Moon base and told him the good news, he also told them that the Reptoids appeared to be cannibalistic, he reported the words of the Reptoid guard. Amid the celebrations at the base, Charles Brannigan said.

"Sam, you had better head for the Moon Phobos, once there, you will keep the alien vessel in sight at all times until the authorities on Earth have decided on the fate of the Reptoid colonists. I will also pass on your report regarding their loathsome desire to eat us."

Captain Aaron Raxit of the Kolkata was given similar orders by the Indian Space Command, for NASA and the Indian Space Agency had worked out a joint agreement and together the two spaceships went in to a geo-stationary orbit above the Ark and waited. The Reptoids down below them awaited their fate and they were surprised when it did not immediately follow the destruction of their starship. A'Tilla was of the opinion that Earth must want the technological secrets within the Ark, and he vowed to destroy them rather than allow the mammals to gain by the deaths of so many Reptoids, including his own valuable life. He immediately contacted the repair ship, that on hearing the news turned about and headed back to its base, leaving the colonists to their fate.

Sam had overheard the brief discussion between A'Tilla and the captain of the repair vessel and was both appalled at the captain's action, but also delighted with his decision. He immediately passed this conversation back to Earth and then he updated Aaron Raxit, who sounded very relieved to not having to go up against any more Reptoid vessels. Sam was worried about something else now, what if Earth ordered the Discovery and the Kolkata to launch all of their weapons at the asteroid, to finally finish off the alien attack on Earth by killing all of the alien colonists. Would he be able to follow the order, even if the Reptoid colonists would not have balked at murdering seven billion humans and eating their flesh? It took 48 hours before James Bartlett of NASA came back to him with fresh orders.

"Sam, you are to contact the Reptoids and speak to whoever is now in charge there. You are to offer them a peace treaty. If they accept that Earth belongs to the humans that live upon it, we in turn will eventually provide new homes for them on Earth, when we find a way to convey so many of them to Earth, seeing as how we simply do not have a large enough vessel to do so."

Bartlett now awaited Sam's reply which was a while coming due to the vast distance between the two.

"James, why are we offering them the chance to live on the Earth, they are monsters, could it have something to do with their technology?"

"Of course, Sam, President Cooper and the other leaders of the security council are scared that there may be other unfriendly alien races out there, they believe that we need to get help from wherever we can, even from a cannibalistic one, if humanity is to survive."

"I will have to think long on that James, before I can go along with their reasoning, but then, they were not being threatened with being the main course of a celebratory feast. However, I will follow your order. even if it is the Nazi scientists being offered freedom all over again. I will call them immediately, see what they have to say."

With that Bartlett rang off and Sam turned around to look at his crew, all of who had gathered to listen in.

"Now we know," David said. "We go as peacemakers rather than assassins."

"David, we were never going to be assassins, we embarked on a very dangerous mission to search for whoever had murdered some of our people, and threatened the lives of many more. None of us thought that we would be standing here as victors, we never dared to think beyond even the next hour." Emily protested. "I know that I did not."

"You are so right Emily, I did not mean quite what I said, I am merely grateful that we do not have to launch our missiles against an unarmed vessel filled with over 1000 beings, even if they would not have felt the same if the situation had been reversed." David said contritely.

"Emily is right, I was never able think about a future, but I for one am grateful that we do not have to commit genocide, even if, as you say David, the aliens would have had no such qualms about committing such an act if they had managed to get the whip hand." Noah said

"It is thanks to you Noah, that we were able to locate their attack vessel without them discovering just how we accomplished it, and then to take it out and disable their Ark." Sam said and then added. "All of you, I am proud to be your captain, you were calm under attack, under the threat of imminent death and hardest of all, when facing the unknown. Earth owes you much, as it also owes the crews of the Russian and the Chinese vessels, who gave their lives, and finally, the Indian crew who knew the dangers and yet still they came to Mars."

Sam now turned to the radio and put a call in to the alien vessel who were suitably stunned when they heard what the lowly mammals had to offer them and after 24 hours spent talking about the offer, A'Tilla called Sam back.

"This is Consul Grappon A'Tilla, on behalf of my people, I humbly accept your offer of life over death."

A'Tilla did have one reservation, that he did not voice at this time. The people of Earth had enough trouble getting along with their human neighbours, how would they cope with reptilian ones? Of course, they had not yet been told that Earth did not possess any vessels that could be considered suitable for such an operation and Sam now mentioned this.

"The captain of the starship left us his shuttlecraft, in case things turned out for the worse." A'Tilla replied. "This could be used to transport us to Earth, all be it rather slowly."

"Yes, it sounds fine Consul, I will speak to my people living within the bases on Mars and ask if they would be willing to take in some of your colonists. This should make life in the Ark more bearable for those who will remain on the Ark while they wait their turn to be transferred to Earth. If they are, then some of your people can move down to Mars immediately, once there, your colonists can help to improve the environmental units within the bases and also the hydroponic units, to cater for the increase in numbers. However, your colonists will have to accept that your people died only because they were attacking the bases, my people were only defending themselves."

"I understand Captain, I will ensure that my people understand this and that your people are offering to save the lives of all the colonists and without punishing terms tacked on to their offer."

"The Discovery is short of many things; our mission has been longer than was originally intended. Therefore, I will be taking her back to Earth tomorrow, on the way we will rendezvous with a freighter that has been sent out towards Mars. On board her are the necessary stores to ensure that we will not need to go on short rations. I mention this as your people might like to despatch a diplomatic team to Earth, making use of my ship, so that they could speak to the governments of Earth about your peoples' security on Earth and their needs. I should add that we do not have any extra bedrooms so your people will have to bring their own beds and bedding, probably food, for I found that I had no liking for the food that I was fed."

"I will see to it Captain and get back to you. Thank you for your kind words, my people will not forget you both as a warrior and now as a peacemaker."

"You do understand Consul, that you will have to travel third class, within one of our holds?"

"You forget Captain, I have seen your vessel and I realise that what you have said is quite true and that you are not attempting to insult us. We will bring everything we need to make the best of whatever accommodation is given to us."

Sam signed off here, he did not disclose his own feelings about the Reptoid race to A'Tilla, for it would not have helped the two races to live peaceably in close proximity.

The End

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About the Author

Like most of the world, I had to work hard to pay my mortgage and all the other bills, so I only had the time and the energy to write some short stories. Since retiring to the Greece, I have finally found the time and the energy to write some full-length Science Fiction stories, which I have enjoyed and hope to write many more.

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Other Books by the Author

Colonies of Earth Series in order

Galaxy Spies

Time Storm

Rebirth

Trial by Ordeal

Horror Stories

Strange tales; three short mild horror stories

The Vampires of Cymru

Rob Hinds black magic stories

Kidnapped and Bound for Hell

The Satanists

Dreamscape

The Return of the Bitch from Hell

David Charlton stories, a science fiction series

Rescue Mission to the Stars

The Treasure of Altaraus

Return to Mazere

Other science fiction stories

Quasar

The Venetou

Invasion Earth

Lost and Far from Home

Journey to the Stars

Rebellion is in the Air

Pen Draig

Insurrection

Short children's stories

Three Journeys of the Scary Kind
