Prologue: The Rise of Fear and Dread
General Greaves
Deimos, and Phobos glowed brightly in the sunlight through the viewscreen. Greaves knew it was simply the computer doing its job and highlighting the objects for him. But still, it was a beautiful sight.
“No, General Lee. That is unacceptable. Your station on Phobos needs to have additional supports put in place. In the long run, it’ll need to be scrapped and rebuilt from the ground up. The quality of steel your workers had was nowhere near the correct grade for something like the proposed shipyards. But for now, my construction crews are willing and able to put in structural supports so it can operate safely.”
General Lee, the undisputed leader of the Chinese colony on Mars, frowned. “We are granting you access to the colony and nominal control on the ground. Our space operations, including those shipyards, are on lease General greaves. You do not own them, and neither will you ever do so.”
Greaves laughed. It wasn’t the most diplomatic thing to do, he knew, and it cost the Chinese General a lot of face. But he wasn’t the one who had his entire fleet to defections to the Russians.
When greaves finally got control of himself again, he sighed. “General Lee, that might be the bullshit you have to force feed your population in order to get them on board. But we both know what this is. You, your people, your colonists, shipyards, and every other damn thing you own, including your socks, if I want them, are mine now.”
Lee blustered, and it was clear he was about to yell, but Greaves didn’t have time to hand hold him through this. Neither of them did. “I am the only thing standing between you and the Russian fleet, now supported by your mutinous naval officers. Officers in control of ships, who were driven to mutiny by your poor leadership.” Lee fell silent. This was being heard not just by him, but by the cadre of officers in the room with the man. He knew Greaves wasn’t really talking to him anymore, but to them.
“This can go one of two ways. The first option is, I can send my troops down there, breach the hab-domes and take them for ourselves. With the Russians headed here, that would leave our orbital platforms defenseless to Russian boarding actions. Without the sustained support from those platforms, my fleet can’t stand against theirs. Our ships are much better, but they have nearly three times our number. Thanks to your stupidity.” Greaves saw several of the older CCP officers’ eyebrows crease in thought in the background as they gave mutinous glances towards their boss.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Without those platforms, we would lose the orbitals. The deaths of you and your colonists from orbital bombardment would swiftly follow, as those vengeful kids you ran off return with those fucking Russian monsters behind them.That would lead to every other minor power on the face of Mars, including your remnant of the CCP getting wiped off the map entirely. Just like those bastards did to the EU on Europa. Our and our allies, like the Japanese, would still be secured, as we have enough firepower to make the Russians think twice before attacking our holdings. In the long run, we’d come to some kind of power sharing arrangement with them, I’m sure. We’ve done it before, we’d do it again.”
Greaves let that option fill the silence as he stared daggers at the other General.
“What is the other option?” Lee said, his shoulders slumped but his face red with rage. He was done. He knew it. Even if he did everything correct from here on out, his people would kill him. His only option was to join the growing alliance of US and minor powers. The EU had not taken a massive interest in the space race, focusing instead on securing Europe, with them facing down two connection points relatively close to one another.
But they had set up several small colonies on Europa, mainly for research and development. They had thought that the joint threat they faced with the Russians would protect them from opportunistic attacks, but that proved to be as true as a mirage of water to a dying man in the desert.
The scientists and colonists on Europa didn’t stand a chance. They had been bombed, and the handful of survivors forced into what amounted to slavery for the reborn Russian Federation.
“I’m glad you finally asked.” Greaves smiled, trying to keep it from looking predatory. “You join us, and you help us. We have six hours until the Russians get here, and we need to be ready. My techs have already uploaded the schematics for a new design of shuttle fighter craft into your shipyards database. They should be able to construct it with the tools and equipment on hand.”
A picture of the circular design appeared on both of their screens. It had two turrets, one on either side of the disk shaped body of the craft. It was simple to build, mainly armor plates surrounding three pressurized suits were the pilots, and two gunner crews would be located. Everything else was decoy, armor, storage, or engine. Even the life support wasn’t designed for long hauls, carrying just enough air for a day, maybe a little more in space.
“That looks like it came from that movie you westerners love. What is it called, Star, star something?” Lee frowned. “Are you playing games with me, General?”
“Not at all. Any resemblance to a fictional smuggling craft is entirely a coincidence, I assure you.”