Sorry this one is a little late, had a few health problems this week including a mild cold and I didn't want to proof read with a dizzy head. Feeling better now so work can progress again.

Chapter 64

Who's Fooling Who?

A target laser lit up a point, two meters from the enemy ships bow and only millimetres above the waterline. With an armed boarding party in the water and three men on deck rapidly preparing to fire, the One and All gave no further quarter as a hail of 20mm projectiles tore into the lead ship and opened up a hole over a meter in length.

Many miles away, on the western side of the farming settlement, Captain Reed Branson was trying to make radio contact with his ship. He desperately wanted to find out what had happened when the Raiders had arrived and when he finally got through to his crew, he definitely liked what he was told.

"HEY... YOU BEHIND THE HAY BALES" he shouted from the upper deck of the Bull Ant train.

Behind the afore mentioned hay bales, an impromptu battle plan meeting was going on, and desperation was the name of the game for those in hiding alongside the man with the empty shotgun.

"There's no way we can hope to hold them here Cid" one of the group stated.

"Yeah we should pull back and prepare an ambush" another agreed "I know fuel is scarce but maybe a few Molotov Cocktails will slow that thing down when that thing rolls into town."

"Maybe we should call in all the scouts with rifles to defend the main settlement" a third put forward.

Cid put down his useless weapon and considered what the others advice.

"They haven't moved yet, so I assume they are waiting for reinforcements before they attack" he said.

"All the more reason to..."

The conversation came to an abrupt halt when everyone noticed the growling of a midsized diesel engine with a bad muffler approaching fast from the east.

"It's Shifty" Haley told her father what he already knew.

The truck stopped behind the vehicle barricade and the young driver dropped down from the cab. As he walked forward, his mouth fell open with astonishment as soon as he set eyes on the large railway car sitting in the middle of the road.

"Far out!" he declared "They said the little tanks tracks were for transport but I never imagined..."

"Get down you idiot" Cid hissed "They're armed."

"Yeah but I found out some very interesting news back at the bunker."

"Never mind that for now" Cid declared "Three more ships just arrived in San Diego so you can be sure they'll be amassing on the northern border to prepare a two front raid."

Shifty ducked down with the others as they considered their next move.

"If only we had some ammo here" Cid sighed loudly.

"Will this do?" Shifty grinned as he pulled one of the ammo boxes from inside his jacket.

"What the... where did you get these?" Cid asked.

"They were really happy to get their hands on Professor Adisa back at the bunker."

"I suppose they would be pleased since we've captured the head of the Earth First Alliance" Haley agreed.

"That's the weirdest part about all this" Shifty looked confused "Yes they did take him captive, but I overheard the guards say he wasn't EFA."

"That is weird" Haley nodded.

"You know what also doesn't make sense?" Shifty continued "Raiders mostly hit at night or just before dawn; rush in, steal stuff and bug out. Why would they send this weird tank thing ahead of their attack?"

"It's not a tank, it's a railway car" Reed corrected them.

Everyone behind the hay bales jumped up in surprise, embarrassed by the fact they had all neglected to keep an eye on the strange vehicle. Cid looked from the shotgun on the ground to the box of rifle shells in Shifty's hand and cursed himself for bringing the wrong weapon.

"Relax everyone, I bring glad tidings" Reed smiled "You don't have to worry about the Raiders in the harbour anymore; we took care of them for you."

"What do you mean by took care of them?" Cid asked suspiciously.

"I tried to tell you but no one would answer me" Reed complained "I just received a message from my ship about three other vessels. When they tried to take my ship the One and All, we sank the lead vessel and the remaining two turned tail and ran. One of them got away but we took out the rudder on the other one and it is now beached on the northern end of the harbour; the crews of both ships are being held prisoner."

"You'd have to think I was mighty gullible to believe a story like..."

But before Cid could finish his thought, his radio crackled into life with a call from Central Control; he picked it up and replied nervously.

"This is Cid on the west road receiving."

"You're not going to believe this Cid" the voice from control declared.

"I'm starting to get a sinking feeling about this" he sighed.

"Funny you should say that because so did the Raiders. According to the scouts watching San Diego harbour, the newcomer's vessel opened fire on the three raider ships and sank one. They managed to disable second one too and took the crews prisoner. The scouts want to know what you want to do about it."

Cid looked at Captain Branson with embarrassment and surprise.

"Told you we weren't Raiders" Reed declared "Now could you please point the way to this bunker? I think it's about time we tried to get our friends back."

Cid thought for a moment before making a counter offer.

"Your vehicle is pretty slow, so I suggest we let it continue on to our settlement while you and I take the truck down to San Diego to see these prisoners? We should be back before your vehicle gets into town."

Reed screwed up his nose as he pondered the idea before holding out his hand.

"Agreed!" he stated.

Cid was not expecting this tough looking, weather worn man to be so agreeable, especially considering how he had felt about Reed only a few minutes ago, but eventually he reciprocated and the pair shook hands.

Although the Mars Transfer Vehicle had managed to pick up a lot of speed, when Calla looked back at the Earth it didn't feel like they were moving at all. Her home planet now looked smaller than the Moon, while the Moon looked like a big dull star. She only enjoyed looking outside when she was in the main body of the ship because looking out of the ring section made her feel nauseous; it just wasn't normal to see the stars slowly turning in circles.

"Dad's gonna make contact with Earth soon" Abigail informed her new friend "Do you want to sit in?"

"You bet" Calla smiled "Mom would go ape if I wasn't there to tell her not to worry."

As the girls floated off to fetch Blue from the rear of the MTV, Major Dias sat in the ring section, giving Doctor Spencer some worrying news.

"I still have not been able to make direct contact" he said "I know my messages are being held on the Orbit Station by Jarred's little spy rig, but no one on Mars will respond to any direct calls. All I get back is a message telling me to standby while the situation is assessed by the Mars Citizens Council."

"Well you're getting more than we are" Sarah replied "There hasn't been a single response to any of our attempts at communication."

"Well if they ever do stop assessing and actually talk to me, I'll see if I can find out anything useful" Luis promised "I can hear the kids climbing down the ladder so we'd better change the subject."

Blue and Calla soon took the opportunity to catch up with their friends and family on Earth, but back on Mars all conversations were much deeper and quite regulated. While work on the second base site went ahead without her, April Dias found herself in a very difficult situation with the Mars hierarchy.

"Thank you for coming to speak with us today."

The man who had greeted April was Marshal Baron; the new head of the Mars Citizens Council after the removal of Olive Roux. April had always considered him to be a friend but she had been quite annoyed by some of his actions lately. To be fair though, April had been annoyed by many people recently. Marshal spoke with April one on one to avoid the interview descending into an unorganised chaotic shouting match, but to his left a population cross section consisting of twenty colony members sat behind a transparent wall ready to send written questions to Marshal's computer screen while the whole base could hear her answers over the internal communications system.

"Thank you for coming they tell me" she repeated sarcastically "I've been trying to get you to listen to me for days."

"So much has been happening since your little surprise, we just had to take it one step at a time with our interviews and now it is your turn."

"Little surprise; is that what you call the revelation of a major conspiracy and the manipulation of the lives of every colonist on Mars?" April gasped.

"Please refrain from using such inflammatory language April" Marshal sighed.

"It's the truth" she declared.

"Unfortunately we have to impartially determine the truth without any more of your theatrics."

"THEATRICS?" April protested.

"Organising a memorial when you knew Luis and Abigail were alive, making a video presentation about your discoveries, it all sounds very theatrical to me."

"We didn't have much choice; with the Deep Council so entrenched, we knew it would not be easy to get the word out to everyone at the same time and none of us wanted to let differing stories and rumours drift about the base causing confusion."

"It seems to me like you were the one causing all the confusion, by letting us think the MTV crew were all dead."

"I'm talking about the control held by the Deep Council" April reminded everyone.

"How do you know this Deep Council is so bad?" Marshal read from his screen "With all the trouble back on Earth with the EFA, maybe the oversight and secrecy were a necessary part of making the Mars Project a success."

"Even if that were true, and I doubt it is, they should have ceased their operations over a decade ago and given back control of the base. Instead they let us just stumble on blindly thinking the Mars Citizens Council were in charge. Unknown to us Olive Roux was pushing the agenda of the Deep Council with the probable help of other members who were in both groups. Their influence is plain to see; just consider how long it took to get the second base started" April noted.

"So this is all about the difficulties you encountered in getting your own personal agenda going?" Marshal read.

"Don't be ridiculous" April countered "I was not the only one pushing for a second site; even Florian Klein, who was himself a member of the Deep Council, knew it should have been started a long time ago as well as more surface infrastructure spread over a larger area. We now know it was all to stop anyone from contacting Earth and accidentally learning about what had been done to our allies at the Sumatra Railgun site."

"How do you know this?"

"Personally I know they did not want any contact with the Professor Adisa to ensuring he wouldn't find out I was alive, also that I would not find out my son was alive, and no one would find out the supply tanker had not been sunk; thus stopping anyone else from leaving the Earth."

"So you admit the secrecy was necessary to prevent Mars from being overrun by refugees from Earth" Marshal accused.

"I do no such thing" April said with venom "Linton was not stupid and even now, when we could take more people if we wanted to, the people from Earth are instead looking to set up a new colony in the Asteroid Belt."

"Which could be used as a base to prepare an attack on our home with the intention of taking over" Marshal read.

"WHAT!?" April jumped up and rushed to the window.

"WHO THE HELL SAID THAT?" she thumped on the glass with both fists "I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR PARANOID LIES!"

"APRIL!" Marshal barked "WILL YOU PLEASE... will you please... sit down."

"I think it's plain to see the high level of paranoia that has seeped its way into the entire base" April declared as she returned to her seat.

"So you fought fire with fire by starting a conspiracy to expose a conspiracy."

"Ours was only small conspiracy and it was never intended to last a short time; only long enough for us to get the word out and then everyone would be free to make their own decisions and draw their own conclusions."

"And you admit doing this with the help of Jarred's little receivers placed on all the major monitor screens" Marshal read an accusation sent to his computer.

"Yes; I felt it was the best way to ensure nobody would denied hearing the entire news" April admitted "I knew as soon as I started to reveal too much, the live feed would be cut and that is why we made sure the video message went out to as many as possible. Some people may not think I was justified in what I did, but at least I wasn't listening in on people's private conversations with hidden bugs."

The Mars colony may have been split in recent time into those who believed April and those who thought she had a hidden agenda of her own; but almost everyone believed in the recordings made by the Kindermans, showing Commander Sage admitting to his crimes. Everyone had also been shocked and disgusted upon finding out about the listening devices in every home; the very existence of these bugs gave April's accusations a certain kind of solidity.

"Hmm... this is interesting" Marshal read "Someone has again asked why you think the Deep Council were so bad, when you consider Olive Roux was so upset at the attempt on the lives of Luis and Abigail, and Florian Klein went to such extreme lengths just to ensure their killer did not return to Mars and put others at risk?"

April looked out at the people sitting in the adjoining room and wished she could find out which ones had posted all these questions. She had no way to know for sure, but it sounded like the kind of argument a member of the Deep Council would make.

She could tell it was going to be a long, long day.

Hey there young'uns; it's time for Ol' Man Martian to have another rant and this one is all about space.

On this morning national news program, they mentioned today (September 25th 2017) is the 50th anniversary of the first satellite launch from Australia (third country after Russia and the United States to do so) and so our Federal Government has finally decided the time is right for Australia to have its own Space Agency.

ABOUT (*expletive deleted) TIME TOO!

I do love this country but it has been so disheartening knowing I lived in one of the most backward places on the planet. Thirty years ago I wrote to the relevant minister to ask why we were being so slow to form an official agency and was told...

"Australia does not need a Space Agency because we have the CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation)."

Now the CSIRO is a great organisation and I really enjoy the posts I get from them on Facebook, telling me about new discoveries and what is going on in the world of Aussie science. But it must be considered that they deal in all sorts of things like insect control, penguin eating habits, drought resistant wheat and high potency bull semen. Not exactly the kind of specialist space science that attracts the likes of NASA, JAXA, ESA and others looking for collaboration in space endeavours.

This country has also been turning down membership in the ESA (European Space Agency) for about 35 years, (leading me to repeatedly hit my head on the door frame) while Canada has continued to gain so much from a similar collaboration. One of the recent developments that caused the re-think about the need for a Space Agency was the formation of one in New Zealand and their development of launch facilities.

If you ever want to prompt an Australian politician into action, the best way is to point out that New Zealand is ahead of us. This poor attitude towards NZ by those in power (along with many other Australians) was the main reason I made Calla and her family Kiwis.

So well done New Zealand; you beat us yet again, just like you do regularly in Rugby (respect to the All Blacks).

Rant complete; time to take my medication.