Chapter 24 : Trust and Mistrust

Location : Orange Triangle Franchise, near Eagle City, Meridiani Planum, Mars
Era by Mars Calendar : Sol Solis 15 Kanya MY183
Era by Earth Calendar : Thursday 16 March 2299CE

Félix and eight friends were waiting at an intersection in their path. The weapons they were carrying would have sent a shiver down his spine if he still had one. Felix had a crystal shot, others had a smart dart gun, lightning spear gun, plus assorted slug throwers, lasers and masers. They were Heavy military rifles, not the small hand guns that most of his escort were carrying.

<Hello Naddy. Where are you going?> asked Félix.

Mark ran their IDs against Varija’s files. She had dossiers on five of them. Four of them were known associates of the Jedwar. Three of them had served serious time in lockdown. All of them had dirt in their files and all of them had transferred in from other franchises within the last decade. Extortion, theft, gambling, dealing in illicit devices.

<None of your business, and only my friends call me Naddy. Princess Valerie ordered you back to your quarters, why aren’t you there?> asked Nadja.

Another group came into view behind them. They were out of range of Mark’s ticks but closing. Mark counted six including one who was a known associate of the Jedwars.

<Been and gone darling. Been and gone.> sent Félix. <You shouldn’t be taking the prisoner out of the secured area, >

Mark stepped forward and to the side to get in a better position. Mark sent a targeting program and a firing sequence to Tânia and Tidir who had their heaviest non-lethal weapons. <Get ready, > he warned.

Tidir gave Mark a dirty look, before turning to Tânia. He noticed the now familiar signs that Tânia and Tidir were arguing privately. Meanwhile Nadja was still arguing with Félix. <The Princess has been given responsibility for the prisoner, not you, and not the Jedwar.> she sent.

<Things are going to turn nasty soon. You need to make a decision, > Mark warned Tânia and Tidir.

<I don’t see the Princess here, > sent Félix continuing his argument with Nadja.

Tânia sent a revised targeting priorities list. Glancing quickly at those priorities, he noted that she rated two of the unknowns as far more dangerous that he had.

<The princess left me in charge of the prisoner. I will secure him as I see fit.> returned Nadja to Félix.

<We are firing now!> announced Tânia,

But Mark was already firing ticks from all three of his launchers targeting Félix, the smart dart gunman whose ID proclaimed her as Deirdre Ayers, and the Lightning Spear gunman, called Liliya Jo. He was firing his second volley at his next group of targets as Tânia was sending ‘Now’. <Get down!> He sent to Monika, Silvia and Irina. The last thing he needed was one of them to fire a lethal weapon.

It took 3.48 seconds for the missile’s payload to lockdown a target. An eternity in a fire fight. Mark watched as a look of puzzlement then anger was displayed on Félix’s animated features. <You bitch!> he sent to Nadja. Only then did he start to raise his arm to fire the deadly crystal shot. Mark fired his third volley just as Félix started cursing Nadja. His tick launchers were starting to overheat.

A tangle round from Tidir’s tangler wrapped itself around Félix before he could discharge the crystal shot. Félix threw himself backwards in an attempt to bring his weapon to bear. This would have worked, killing a number of Mark’s escort and possibly Mark himself at the cost of blowing off Félix’s own foot, however the lockdown took effect while he was in midair. He landed with a thud on the spongy floor, his joints locked into immobility.

Ayers was quicker she managed to fire a dart at Tânia, just as Tânia hit her with a tase grenade, a couple of dozen electrodes penetrated her skin, the single crystal needles dragging their superconducting threads behind them. The grenade’s SMES cell discharged, sending her limbs twitching uncontrollably as she collapsed. Before she could reset her circuit-breakers and recover, her body froze as the lockdown took hold. Tânia staggered but managed to complete her firing sequence.

Jo was still examining the discolored tick entry point, which the tick had sealed behind it, when several tase electrodes from the grenade meant for Ayers penetrated her arm and gave her a nasty shock. She had barely looked up and registered what was happening when she was hit by a tangle round. Before she could disentangle herself she was frozen into immobility.

Read and Sexton the men that Tânia had marked as dangerous were also quick to react. They both raised their guns, Read aimed at Tidir, but he was knocked off balance by Jo’s flailing as she endeavored to free herself, so that the slug hit Irina instead sending her tumbling backwards. Sexton shot Tânia with a laser, burning a diagonal score on her torso before the beam was interrupted by a tangle round. The partially cooked tangle slammed into Sexton entangling him. The damage Tânia suffered didn’t stop her body following the pre-programmed targeting sequence launching the next tase grenade at Read, which temporarily disabled him until the lockdown tarka paralysed him and shocked those on either side of him. Sexton managed to pull his arm free of the denatured tangle, but froze before he could shoot again. The final target of Mark’s second volley, ClarisseIbbott, didn’t manage to fire a single shot before Tânia’s third grenade took her out. The targets of Mark’s third volley didn’t fare much better with only one of them getting off a shot which narrowly missed Tidir before they were taken down by tangle bolts and tase grenades.

<What the fuck? Tânia! We could’ve talked our way past them, > sent Nadja, rushing to examine Irina.

<No, we couldn’t. That was Tammaro Read and Homer Sexton, > replied Tânia. <How is Irina?>

Mark was grateful that Nadja hadn’t yet figured out that Mark had been involved in the takedown and that Tânia wasn’t in a hurry to enlighten her.

None of his escort had yet noticed the six armed men coming up behind them. 360 degree vision was an art, even if you had the visual sensors facing in all directions, there was only so much information that a human or even trans-humans like Mark and his 23rd century friends could process through their visual cortex.

The six had picked up their pace once the firing had started and were about to come in range of his ticks. He faced his palms backwards, set the ticks to maximum stealth and fired his first two ticks.

<Who the hell are Read and Sexton?> asked Nadja as she examined Irina.

<They’re Red Mars. High ranking Red Mars, > sent Tânia.

Mark was firing his second volley at the approaching enemy when Monika stepped forward and brought up her slug thrower in her right hand. Mark leapt to the side, his left hand shot out grabbing her gun hand. His right hand stayed pointing towards the encroaching enemy firing ticks at each pre-calculated target.

He tried twisting Monika’s gun and hand, the bang of the firing weapon resonated in his quills the vibrations traveling up his arm. He had not been quick enough, the gun had fired, the slug hitting Read, the man who had shot Irina.

A maser appeared in Monika’s left hand and she pointed it at him. There was a struggle as she tried to force her gun hand down. She was very determined to put 2 or 3 more slugs into poor Mr. Read.