ZONE OF THE ENDERS
CHAPTER 1
The KUMAR class freighter rocketed through space at sub light speed, with an extremely important cargo on board. A KUMAR class freighter was a cargo star ship capable of moving at sub light speeds. It was named after a man called Robin Kumar, the man who drew the blue prints for it. It was a new advancement in metatron technology. Metatron is a mineral that was discovered on the moon of Jupiter Callisto. It is mined by LEV's and is used to make Orbital Frames and many other advanced pieces of machinery. Robin Kumar had discovered a way to place a Urenbeck catapult like device inside the metatron engine of a star ship. It works like this: Space is compressed and the distortion of the space (which is not natural) sets off a chain reaction. The space then tries to return itself back to normal, and when it does, it pushes the space outwards at enormous speeds, sending the KUMAR class freighter flying through space. This was still expensive technology, and only the UNSF used KUMAR class freighters. And that's what this was, a UNSF freighter on its way to Mars.
The Urenbeck effect on the freighter was wearing off, and it was returning to normal speed. It was only another 25 million miles from Mars. The trip had been a full 70 miles already. The distance from Earth to Mars when they are furthest away from each other is 100 million miles, and Mars had ordered a battalion of army regulation LEVs (Laborious Extra-Orbital Vehicle) at that exact time. If they had waited half a year, the trip would've only have been 55 million miles long.
"We are 25.273 million miles from Mars sir, Do you want me to schedule the next catapult propulsion towards Mars," asked the chief pilot onboard the freighter. "We will only need one more propulsion and we'll be within 1 day of Mars."
"Very well then" Said Colonel Jack Simmons of the United Nations Space Force in a very dried out voice. "Schedule the launch." Simmons hated the catapult propulsion system. He would get flight sick as a cadet when launched from the Urenbeck catapult orbiting Earth, and this was no different. To make things worse, he hated flying without it as well. In this day and age, you never new what was flying around in space. Nobody bothered getting permits to fly in secure sectors anymore, and there were always rumours going around of freighters being attacked by illegal military groups searching for weapons. And this freighter was carrying a cargo every military group wanted, 2nd generation LEV's (Phantoma II's). Simmons was currently sitting on a chair on the bridge (where the ship was piloted from) with five other pilots. He was waiting for the time they would next launch themselves through the catapult system. Once he found out, he was going to get some lunch. Suddenly the chief pilots computer console started to beep.
"That's funny," he said. "Something has intercepted our path and wont get out of the way."
"That doesn't make sense!" yelled Simmons angrily. "We had these space ways cleared for the past week, no one would dare defy the UNSF's orders."
"I'm slowing down the freighter, I don't wanna collide with whatever it is" said another one of the pilots, with a strong Texan accent. The ship slowed to a halt. In the distance there were five large, humanoid mechanical bodies. Each one was thin, and protruding from each hand was a large red blade. They each had a large, mechanical eye on their heads. Colonel Simmons recognised what they were straight away.
"Oh God" he whispered to himself. "GET DOWN!" The five large machines in front of him were the last things he ever saw.
Lieutenant Ben Donovan sat in the cockpit of his LEV as he marched over the terrain of Mars. Lieutenant Donovan was part of the UCM (united colonies of Mars) security force. His battalion was battalion #324. They were nicknamed the Dead Eyes, reason being, their accuracy with a LEV machine gun beat that of any other battalion. Their LEV's were army regulation LEV's. They were white with the UCM logo and had blue painted shoulders (the symbol of UCM LEV's). LEV stands for Laborious Extra-Orbital Vehicle. An army regulation LEV type a (which is what Ben Donovan is piloting) looks like an enormous mechanical human. They have massive jetpacks on their backs which they use to jump large distances across the ground. They are, however, unable to fly. They have a camera eye, which is a large mechanical eye, on their heads. The cockpit is located in between the hips on the pelvis. They are each armed with one LEV machine gun (LEV machine gun bullets are large enough to break through a tanks armour) and 7-10 homing missiles mounted inside their jetpacks.
Lieutenant Ben's battalion had been sent to investigate the crashing of a KUMAR class freighter at Vascilia Space Port. It had been scheduled to land at the space port and unload it's contents (an armament of 2nd generation LEV's) but had instead flown straight into the middle of the space port, exploding in an incredible burst of flames and smoke. The second generation LEV's were meant for Ben's battalion, and a second set of 2nd generation LEV's for battalion #327, but someone had sabotaged the mission.
"Sir, does this mean we no longer get to have 2nd generation LEV's?" asked Guil Flanders, a weedy cadet from Ben's unit.
"Sorry but not today Guil" answered Ben. He himself was also sad about missing out on the 2nd generation LEV's. A second generation LEV is far more advanced than a standard LEV, capable of flight and far better offensive and defensive capabilities.
"Sir, whoever did this didn't want Mars' security forces getting any stronger," said another member of Ben's unit. "They destroyed our chance of getting second generation LEV's, and with them we would've been a powerful force. Do you think it was the UNSF?"
"Doubt it," answered Ben. "It was one of their freighters, and it was their men. I don't think they would kill their own men and waste a KUMAR class freighter just to stop us from getting our LEV's we paid for."
"They may be trying to make us think that, make us believe they didn't do it" replied Sarah miner, a very masculine woman pilot, Ben's second in command.
"No, I doubt it, there's a third party involved in this alright" said Ben. His computer indicated that they were almost at the spaceport. There was a hill overlooking the spaceport. Ben told his men to get on that hill so they could have a full look at the entire of the spaceport, but nothing could've prepared him for what they were about to see.
