Author Notes: FUCK DISCLAIMERS!
Prologue Part 1: To the Heavens
The Commander sat at his desk, reading reports on the latest developments in Russia. He... longed for something. Exactly what was difficult to describe. It wasn't a longing for battle, or for bloodshed. He'd seen enough of those to last ten life-times. Nor was it a longing for victory. With the capture of Yuri and the recent merging of the timelines, conflict was ceasing over most of the planet. Despite heavy resistance in isolated pockets in a dozen different countries, the Great World War Three was coming to an end, and the Psychic Dominator Disaster had been averted, if only narrowly. What he was longing for was closure: the idea that everything he'd worked for during the past 20 years would amount to something. The world had been locked in cycle of relentless war and fragile peace for his entire life, and he longed for the ability to believe that cycle was about to be broken.
Reading the report in front of him made that longing all the harder to bear, since it seemed to indicate the next war beginning before this one was even finished.
Allied Intelligence reported that there'd been an attempted coup d'état in the upper echelons of the Soviet High Command. While the details were sketchy at best, the information available indicated that one of the Unions' highest ranking generals, Nikolai Krukov, and one of his subordinates, Anatoly Cherdenko, had attempted to seize power using a highly experimental piece of technology. Exactly what the technology was, and how it would facilitate the coup were unknown, but the fact remained that even as the current Soviet leadership fell, others were making grabs at the reins of power, and this particular attempt was a disturbing echo of what'd happened with Premier Romanov and his "advisor" Yuri not so long ago. At least, it didn't feel too long ago, from the Commander's perspective. Thinking about the way the two timelines interacted, and how the "past" related to the "future" gave him a headache, so he put it out of his mind.
If there was one bit of good news, it was that the coup had been stopped shortly before it could be executed, but it made him wonder if another attempt was just waiting to happen.
Deciding he needed a reprieve from the events of the present, the Commander turned his attention to a different report, this one decidedly more focused on the future. It detailed the advancements made by Dr. Einstein and his team on the chronosphere technology used by the Allied Armed Forces. After receiving scattered reports that Yuri had potentially developed a moon base of all things, it was decided that the potential of the madman using an off-world location for a final stand was too great a threat not to act on. Consequently, the Commander had requested that the good doctor focus his efforts to increasing the range and efficacy of his chronospheres, so that if there was a base on Luna, it could be dealt with swiftly, before Yuri had a chance to rebuild his strength.
While fears of a hostile base on the moon had ultimately been unfounded, the technological advancements made by Einstein's team in the meantime were nothing short of remarkable. Not only could the Allies now send men and material to orbit and beyond with almost laughable ease, they could even send fully developed, if small, bases as far as Mars.
With the war winding down and fighting mostly ended, the massive military complex built by the Allies over the past four years to stop Yuri and the Russians suddenly had nothing to do but sit around twiddle its' metaphorical thumbs. With that in mind, the Commander had made the decision to focus the attention of the more… restless elements of his command outward, giving them something to do until he was sure they wouldn't suddenly be needed again as they were when Yuri revealed his Psychic Dominators. He'd been caught with his pants down once, and he wasn't eager to re-live the experience. They'd been secretly exploring and mapping every square inch of Luna and Mars in a search for resources not easily available on Earth. The first, and perhaps most important, at least so far, was logical, if somewhat surprising; helium-3, widely believed by his best and brightest to be the future of power generation on Earth, was far more abundant in lunar regolith than anywhere else on Earth, having been deposited there over the eons by solar winds. If nothing else, the idea that Allied power generation could be increased to match the Soviets without having to resort to those massive fission reactors they favored was appealing. And, the Commander admitted to himself with some trepidation, the civilian possibilities might be even greater. Having a way to navigate around the solar system without needing to spend billions on rockets and space elevators would make the potential for human growth almost limitless.
"Assuming of course we don't blow ourselves up first." he muttered with a grim chuckle. "That's always a possibility."
As he began reading through the report, something caught his eye. The area of Mars the expedition teams had managed to map, nearly ten million square miles, was remarkable, given the amount of time they had to do it. However, only four days ago, the expedition teams had suddenly stopped, as if they'd hit a giant invisible wall and were struggling to find a way past it. The Commander wondered if they'd been experiencing technical difficulties, or if there was some sort of supply shortage. With how focused he'd been on the coup in Russia, he hadn't been keeping up on the reports from off-world lately.
"Still, if were any serious problems, the Doc would've called, right?"
The man had all but leapt at the chance to put his considerable talents towards something that didn't involve bodily harm to his fellow man, and the Commander couldn't say that he blamed him. As a soldier, he'd become desensitized to the realities of war in a way most civilians would never understand, but at heart, the doctor was a man of peace. As he had once told him "Vell, Commander, you know, of course, zat var, it is not my vocation! I am only a scientist."
As he read further, the Commander saw evidence of the doctors' rather… scatterbrained method of research. While he'd made some of the most important discoveries in human history, one's that would win him more than one Nobel Prize if they were declassified, the white-haired physicist fit the cliché of the absent-minded professor almost to a "T." His reports practically oozed with enthusiasm at what he called "A groundbreaking discovery that will shape mankind's history for generations to come," without actually giving any details as to what it was he'd actually found. But, if he thought it was significant, and it explained what caused the exploration of Mars to come to a screeching halt, then it must be worth looking in to.
Picking up one of the many phones scattered about his oversized desk, the Commander dialed the direct line to the Off-world Expeditionary Force main base in Houston. A few moments later, he was met with the voice of General Bradshaw, the leader of the Force. After having commanded army groups in three different theaters for twelve years, George Bradshaw was in need of some well-deserved R&R when the Commander had put him in charge of the OEF, expecting it to be a relative cakewalk compared to being shot at by Ruskies every day.
"Nice to hear from you, Commander. How are things in Russia?" he asked.
"Better every day, but I'm still wondering if we can hold everything together this time, or if it'll fall to pieces like it did with Yuri." The Commander sighed. "The most recent reports from Intel aren't good. But that's not what I'm calling about. I was reading the latest report from Doc Einstein about the progress of the Mars mission, and I was wondering if you could shed some light on what it is he's discovered. If I didn't know better, I'd swear he was being deliberately obtuse."
Bradshaw chuckled at that. "Well sir, I was actually beginning to wonder that myself. Today's report came in less than thirty minutes ago, and all it said was "Come to Mars, Commander. -Einstein." That's it. Five words."
"Are you sure you got the whole thing?" he asked incredulously, scratching his head. "That's not a whole hell of a lot to go on."
"Well, we sent out a request for confirmation a few minutes ago, but considering Mars is two hundred million miles away at the moment, it'll be at least another half an hour before we get any sort of reply. In the meantime, the techs are pretty sure that the message wasn't interrupted or garbled, so it's got a lot of people down here scratching their heads." The commander suppressed a chuckle as Bradshaw paused for a moment. "Honestly… my gut tells me there's something we're not seeing here, sir, a big picture we can't make out yet. Coupled with Einstein's last report, I'm actually inclined to go to Mars myself and see what all the fuss is about. Unless the Reds have suddenly discovered our upgraded chrono technology, there isn't much that could go tits up that far away from Earth; not that would lead to that particular message, anyway. There's no indication the base has been attacked or damaged, only that they've become very mysterious very quickly."
"Hmm…" The Commander thought for a moment. Whatever it was that had caused the doctor to become so close-mouthed must either be very important… or very dangerous, and as the Supreme Allied Commander, both of those things fell squarely in his lap. If there was a problem, the best response would be to send in a unit of chrono commandos and have them figure out what the hell was going on. If they didn't report back, he could send heavier reinforcements, but that would mean having to wait for hours between trips, and if whatever was going on was this important, he might not have that kind of time. Going himself would avoid that problem, and it would be nice to get away from everything for a few days. He'd been to Luna and Mars a few times in the past months, but it'd been a while, and he could use a break. Then again, for all he knew, he could be walking into a combat zone, which wasn't a risk a man in his position was supposed to take.
Still, there were some advantages to rank.
"Alright George. I'll bite. Put together a platoon of c-commandos and legionnaires, and meet me at the transit hub on here at HQ. We're gonna listen to the Doc on this one. He's never steered us wrong before, so I think we owe his some leeway. We'll go in two separate waves, with you and me in the second. If whatever's up there can take on a whole platoon of those boys, we got bigger problems than a compromised research station."
"Yes sir. I'll have the men ready in ten minutes. See you soon."
The trip to Luna Base should be fairly mundane for the Commander, a fact that still struck him as a bit odd. Less than a year ago, chrono technology had been one of the most expensive and complex tools in the Allied arsenal, requiring more than double the resources to train and outfit a single chrono legionnaire than to construct a tank. Chronospheres were massively expensive and ate power like crazy, and they could only transport a few vehicles or people at a time. On top of that, there was the effect the process had on unshielded living tissue. Just to transport infantry, specialized suits or sealed vehicles were required. Heck, the whole reason their campaigns had been so slow was the need to fit an entire base into a single mobile vehicle, and MCV's were damn expensive because of it. Now though, chrono technology was almost commonplace. It still wasn't ready for the civilian market, but most of his command had access to miniaturized chronospheres that could be used to move enough men and material to build several armies across entire continents for not much more than the cost of transporting them by plane. If fusion technology could be exploited the way his science teams seemed to hope, that cost would drop by ninety percent, making chronospheres cheaper than cars.
Of course, that would mean a complete overhaul of military tactical and strategic doctrine for the entire planet. It was pretty hard to defend anything when the enemy could chrono a tactical nuke onto your lap.
Trying and failing to put the present out of his mind, the Commander gave orders to his clerk to forward his messages to Luna Base for the time being. He stopped by his quarters and quickly changed into his dress blues.
"If something important is gonna go down, I may as well look sharp when it does." he mused.
As he began turned leave, the Commander stopped, and did something rather out of character for a man in his position. He took his gun-belt, to some reminiscent of those worn by old west gunslingers, and strapped it around his waist. He reached into his footlocker and pulled out his personal sidearm, a Colt Single Action Army revolver with hand carved ivory grips. Placing it in his holster, he walked out of his quarters and began making his way to the embarkation room, which served as the central hub for chrono transit for his entire command on this continent. Any chrono travel to or from North America was supposed to pass through that room, with the exception of OEF forces out of Houston, and units that had no choice due to an emergency. As he walked, he received a few rather confused and inquisitive looks from the personnel he passed. It'd been a long time since he had carried a weapon at all, let alone in his own HQ, despite regular visits to the range. Finally, one of the MP's at the door to the embarkation room, Samuels if he remembered right, put voice to the question everyone else had been thinking.
"Chasing after Pancho Villa, sir?" he quipped.
Smiling and shaking his head, he walked by the guard without saying anything. Compared to the weapons his men were armed with, the .45 caliber revolver was downright antique, the design being over a century old. Still, he'd carried it into battle more times than he could count in his younger days, and he just couldn't bring himself to replace it. Not that it really mattered in the grand scheme of things. If he ever needed to use it, things were already too far gone for his choice of weapon to make a damn bit of difference.
"Alright gentlemen, here's the quick version" he said, addressing everyone in the small, box-like control room who'd turned to face him as he entered. "Doctor Einstein has personally requested that I meet him on Mars. We're not sure exactly what he has for us, but we think it's big. Communications with Mars have been rather sparse lately, so we're not entirely sure what we're walking into up there. General Bradshaw and I will be following a platoon of commandos and legionnaires up there to see what's going on. While we don't expect any problems, we've been surprised in the past, so if for some reason we don't report in within the next twenty four hours, sending in the cavalry. Someone get on the horn to Colonel Douglass at Bradley and have him scramble a company of troops and two dozen battle fortresses, and have them ready to move out in six hours. I want them prepped and ready just in case. In the meantime, I need transport to Luna for myself and General Bradshaw's team, who should be arriving shortly."
There was a flurry of activity and orders being executed in the control room as the Commander made his way down the ramp that lead to the embarkation area proper. As he did, he heard alarms blare overhead as incoming travelers, presumably Bradshaw and his boys, suddenly popped into existence on a large, elevated platform on the other side of the room. To be fair though, calling the embarkation area a room was like calling a Kirov a balloon. The massive, hangar-like facility he was in was a rough circle nearly a mile across, and had ceilings 200 feet high in some places. Massive supporting columns fifty feet in diameter were placed at regular intervals throughout the structure, and made it look not unlike a gigantic beehive; with each and every cell in that hive having platforms stacked twenty five feet apart, three, four, even five layers high in some places. The whole gigantic complex was designed to act as a central transit hub for potentially millions of men and thousands of vehicles, as well as cargo, and even complete buildings. It'd taken the Allies over a year, and tens of millions of dollars to build, but it was designed to act as the LAX of the future, and would eventually be turned into a civilian run chronoport, assuming the Allies and the Union could stop shooting at each other.
Making his way to the platform that led to Luna base, he was greeted along the way by the somewhat weary looking visage of General Bradshaw. He looked much the same as when the commander had last seen him, though there were a few more wrinkles around his eyes and mouth, and his hair was a bit grayer. Smiling, he shook hands with the General, who returned the smile.
"Well George, I guess this beats reading reports all day." he said, with hints of anxiety creeping into his tone. "Not exactly what I would call real R&R, but it'll do for the time being."
"Yes sir. To tell you the truth, I've been thinking about taking some leave and going somewhere nice and sunny, but as they say, no rest for the wicked. I'd like to introduce you to Captain Klara Hahnburg." he replied, turning to the lead officer of the troops he'd brought with him. "She's with the KSK, and in commander of our little scouting party."
The officer, who looked to be in her mid-thirties, though it was hard to tell under the suit, snapped to attention and saluted. "Captain Hahnburg, reporting sir."
"Stand easy, Captain. I assume the General briefed you and you men on the mission?"
"He gave us the basics sir, but we didn't have time for much else." she replied, in a somewhat thick Prussian accent.
"To tell you the truth Captain, there isn't much else to tell. We're headed to Luna then on to Mars. We'll know more when we get there."
She hesitated for a moment before responding. "It's hard to believe sir. Half an hour ago, I didn't know we'd even made it past geosynchronous orbit. To discover that there's a full-fledged base on the moon and Mars is rather… jarring."
"That understandable Captain, but if we can end this damn war, the knowledge should become public rather quickly. We can't keep something this big a secret from the Union forever, and when they find out, the whole world will know. As it stands though, we should be on our way." He suited his words by turning to the massive elevator that lead to the outbound platform to Luna base, and they fell in quickly behind him. As they made the short journey upwards to the platform, Bradshaw turned to him, a bit of a smile on his face.
"What do you think we'll find up there?" he asked.
"If I knew that, I'd still be in my office reading reports." said the Commander, exiting the elevator. As he made his way into the transport vehicle on the platform with his bodyguards, he turned to the General, and struggled to be heard over the klaxons whining in the background as a chronosphere charged. "Tell you what though: if it surprises me any more than Yuri did with his Psychic Dominators, the first round's on me."