sky,” Cheng stated enthusiastically.
“More likely they moved their fleet south to attack the southern territories,” Sandra guessed. Baihai was the only Confederate territory in the northern hemisphere. A former Chinese colony, that encompassed the entire Mare Boreum north of 65° north. It had once been prosperous, mining Cerium, along with Palladium and other minor metals. But the Cerium had been mined out, and the Chinese Corporations lost interest in Mars after the Great Lunar War. Now most of the former colony was abandoned, Hangtian had once been home to over a million, but now less than twelve thousand remained, the rest had been relocated to Oceanus Procellarum.
Row after row of abandoned residences, factories, and greenhouses sprawled out around Hangtian spaceport, all connected by a labyrinth of underground tunnels. If the Sudamérican troops got in there, the Arean Army would never be able to flush them all out. It was the tactic the Chinese rebels had used during the Uprising, after a year of searching for them, the Chinese government had officially sold the colony to Canada. The Canadians had briefly occupied the spaceport, but ultimately withdrew once it became clear the rebels could attack them at will, and they couldn't even find the rebels. Sandra knew they had to stop the Sudaméricans from reaching Hangtain, at any cost.
“See if you can get through to Hangtian on the emergency radio bands,” Sandra ordered, and Cheng started calling out in Mandarin, as she turned on the Lockheed's VTOL jets, and the plane lifted into the sky.
“What are we going to do?” Elayne asked.
“Strap yourself in girl,” Sandra ordered. “This flight's going to get bumpy.”
The Lockheed skimmed the glacier and shot quickly over the strato-freighter, which was still anchored where they'd left it. There were no signs of movement below, and no one shot up at them.
“I have reached Brigadier Zhu,” Cheng reported, and then spoke in Mandarin over the radio for almost a minute before tuning back to Sandra. “I've reported the situation aboard the strato-freighter, and reported the landers. The Brigadier reports the Sudamérican fleet has destroyed our com satellites, and is currently bombing the old shipyards at Karācī with mass drivers.”
“Mass drivers?” Sandra repeated in disbelief, even during the Uprising no one had resorted to weapons of mass destruction.
“Yes,” Cheng confirmed. “Apparently America launched a surprise invasion, and has captured most of northern Mexico and the Caribbean Islands. They used mass drivers against several Sudamérican metro-regions including Bogotá, Mexico, and Buenos Aires. The Brigadier also reports there is a wing of Sudamérican fighters en route to our location from Ciudad de Arcadia.”
“We launched a surprise attack against civilian populations?” Elayne said from the seat behind Sandra. “I don't know who we are anymore.”
“There, Cheng, see them?” Sandra asked as the Sudamérican infantry appeared on the ice in front of them. “There that cliff, drowned them!”
Cheng strafed the cliff with the particle beam the Confederacy had installed, and an avalanche of ice particles flooded down on the troops. Some of them were firing up, others were running, but all were suddenly engulfed in a dense blanket of ice-fog. The sensors couldn't detect what was happening within the ice-fog, and Sandra banked the plane to make a second pass when the Missile Approach Warning went off, and Sandra instinctively veered the Lockheed for open skies and jammed on the after burners. The Lockheed was an aerospace plane, and its afterburners could easily achieve 5 Gs, generally fast enough to out run an air-to-air missile.
“Targeting,” Cheng reported, and then a series of bursts cleared the sky behind them. “Clear.”
“How many?” Sandra asked.
“Ten,” Cheng answered.
“Can you see the planes?” Sandra asked banking back down towards the Sudamérican infantry.
“No,” Cheng answered. “How many am I looking for?”
“Five,” Sandra answered. “The Sudaméricans like to fire large opening salvos. They'll target more carefully now.”
“I'm not seeing a thing,” Cheng reported.
“Why not?” Elayne demanded.
“Stealth tech,” Sandra answered. “Well, if we can't find them, let's make them chase us, check our six for atmospheric anomalies. Target the infantry as we pass.”
Cheng strafed the ground as they passed over the Sudamérican infantry, and launched a barrage of air-to-surface cluster grenades that started going of in a chain reaction when they hit the ground. The MAW sounded again, and Cheng reported, “Missile on our six! Targeting.”
The explosion was close enough to jolt the Lockheed.
“EMP now!,” Sandra ordered, and slammed the thrusters full throttle. A few seconds later the bomb exploded silently behind the Lockheed. It wasn't a typical bomb, and it couldn't bring down the Sudamérican fighters, it was an Electro-Magnetic Pulse bomb, designed to damage electronics. “Any damage?”
“Looks like we're fine,” Cheng reported. “And sensors are now reading four, no five, three, well at least five Sudamérican fighters.”
“What type?” Sandra asked.
“Long range Martian atmo,” Cheng replied. “Targeting.”
Behind them the lead Sudamérican fighter exploded, and the others veered off in seemingly random directions. They were glider shaped aircraft, with long graceful wings, connected by only a cockpit and engine. The weapons, fuel, and sensors, were housed in the wings. On board the artificial intelligences were trying to repair the stealth systems, and the fighters were blurring in and out of the Lockheed's sensor display.
“We've got them now,” Sandra stated banking the Lockheed into a steep climb, and exposing the Sudamerican fighters largest profile. Two of them exploded before the other two arched up into a climb after the Lockheed, and then disappeared.
“They're gone again,” Cheng reported.
“That's okay, we know where they are. Hold on to your lunch,” Sandra said and then killed the engine, the plane's ascent slowed and as it came to a stop, she fired the manoeuvring thrusters, pivoting the retrofitted cargo plane into a nose dive. As the Lockheed plummeted back towards the ground Cheng fired off everything he had, and the Sudamérican fighters exploded in front of them. Sandra reignited the engines and veered down towards where the Sudamérican infantry had been advancing. They were frozen solid, encased in the reformed ice-sheet. Sandra banked the Lockheed and headed back towards the strato-freighter.
The Lockheed skimmed above the airships' canopy, and then Sandra switched on the VTOL jets and dropped the plane onto the ice in front of the Cacophony. There were still no signs of life in the gondola, but she knew there were still Sudamérican troops on board, as well as the traitor André.
“Stay here,” Sandra ordered the others. “If it looks like it's going to take off shoot it down.”
She quickly pulled on one of the Sudamérican thermal suits and exited the Lockheed. She cautiously approached the strato-freighter, but no one was shooting at her. She couldn't access the ship's computer anymore. They must have realized she'd accessed it and changed the codes. The wire-ladder was still dangling down to the ice, and further back the emergency pod was still sitting on the ice, its beacon balloon fabric blowing in the wind. Sandra climbed the ladder quickly, but entered the gondola slowly, quietly.
She couldn't hear the sounds of the Sudaméricans; there were no voices. On the bridge the Captain was still dead at his post, and the two Sudamérican troops she'd shot were now frozen to the deck. The passageway back past the cabins was cold with gusts of wind blowing in through the hole she'd made. The XO was alone in the mess, and the cabins were now all empty. At the end of the gondola was the passage way ascending to the freight area, and Sandra quietly crept forward gun in hand.
As she reached the other end of the passage the unexpected happened, an Arean Soldier entered the passageway from the freight area. She froze when she saw the uniform, but he didn't when he saw hers. The Arean soldier pulled out a plasma-blade an rushed at Sandra, a
nd she fired realizing who it was. He fell and she cautiously approached trying to see if any of the Sudaméricans were following him, but he was alone. She pulled the bloody faceplate off him and saw the remains of André staring up blankly. He was wearing her thermal-suit, the one she'd left on the bridge. All of the ship's emergency thermal-suits must have been in the pod.
She looked back up at the cargo area doors. Could she pass for him? They knew he was on board in a Arean thermal suit. She tried to stand more man-like, and walked to the cargo area doors. Maybe from a distance she could pass, but he was heavy set, then again, the thermal-suits was all bulky. She stepped through the doors into the cargo bay, and saw the battle-skiffs the Americans were giving the Confederacy. Over a dozen of then, all painted the standard rust-camo of the American Utopia Marines Division. At the far end of the freight section, the Sudaméricans were crowded around one of the skiffs. Sandra watched for almost a minute before the freight doors started to open, and it became clear what they were doing. She turned back to the passage to the gondola, and broke into a run.
She didn't bother heading back to the wire-ladder, but instead jumped down to the ice through the hole the pod had dropped out of before. As she landed her right foot slipped slightly on the ice, and she felt a burst of pain she recognized as a sprain. She yelped instinctively, and