Hello there!
Phew, sorry for the long wait you guys!
First of all: I've totally forgotten to thank you all out there who have faved and followed this story! A big thank you to you all and also a big thank you to all of you who have reviewed! It always makes me super super happy to see that there are people who like the story and I'm always curious to find out what you guys think!
Also... I'm very sorry that this update took this long. I started in a new job and also I've just got so much to do in this month..!
Well, as you may have noticed I'm writing about the people's potential habitation on Mars here and I actually do a lot of research for it and soon I start to have a semi-good knowledge about all this scientific ways how it would be possible for us to one day habitate the red planet or what does it take for us humans to live and possible thrive on Mars. Lets just say that my Google search history is looking very interesting at the moment...There ain't no shortage on online articles about these subjects... But I want to make it look that the story could be possible from the human's perspective anyway, but oh how I would love that the possibility would be there for us to find out that there are actually gigantic mice living in Mars XD
And as to answer to Youkai's question (again sorry for the very late response!): I'm planning to keep this story quite close to the original story even if I've sort of flipped the scenario and now the humans come to Mars and not the other way around. I do want most of the stuff in my story to resemble what we've learnt from the original series, the facts we've been given but like I've already said there is not too much info we've been given in the first place so I'm working on this "grey area" where I'm building a story with the facts we've been given and also if there's something they're not telling us then, I take that as an invitation to make my own assumption of it. Also, I tried not to make the mice resemble too much humans as they are a totally different species so, for the future chapters, that'll be a fun thing to try and picture this totally different culture and the way of living.
Wow, sorry for the long babble. Let's get to the next chaper! Oh, I so want to have much more time to write as I have already a plot in my head and even if I'd love to rush through the story I want to proceed slowly in here BUT that said in the next chapter you'll find out that things will slowly start to evolve here and I hope you guys don't have to wait too long for the next chapter!
And for all of you out there who had been reading my other story...it will have an update also in one point :)
Here's the fourth chapter, please enjoy! And please leave a comment after reading, I love to know what you guys think of this story :D
Stay safe!
-SpaceFlora
The Story of Rebellion and Hope
4.
It was so beautiful, the desert scenery around the space shuttle albeit the astronauts couldn't see the actual red hues of the sand and the hills but instead their helmets' visors altered the view with different shades of orange. But even if the colours weren't quite right, the scenery itself looked beautiful. It looked serene now, so peaceful, as the storm was now over and the dust had settled. The Sun had risen just so they could really start to see the clear sky above them but it was still really early.
Even if everyone appreciated the harsh beauty of the land it still looked a bit sad. Since Mars propably once had had life but now the planet seemed dead. No flowers, no trees, no water, not a single living thing anywhere, not above the ground nor under it. Or atleast that's what the humans believed, the astronauts had a couple of scientists with them which had a degree on geology and in biology, they would be taking samples of the sand and the rocks and try to find possible traces of the microorganisms, like bacteria. They'd also be drilling a bit deeper into the ground and try and find traces of water, which could in the end determine whether or not the humans would one day be able to live in Mars since all the life depended on water. Everything else could be manufactured artificially and with equipments brought to Mars from Earth.
Charley let out a sigh as she let her green eyes rest in the open scenery around them, on the plains and faraway hills. It was sad, really. To see a once possibly thriving planet like this, a dead sphere of endless sand and rocks. Maybe this was the future for Earth as well?
She startled as the radio made a static noise inside her helmet and a slightly metallic female voice echoed near her ears. The reception wasn't the greatest so she had to concentrate to fully understand the words coming through the crackling noises.
"Charley, quit daydreaming! We don't have the whole day..!"
The auburn haired engineer, whose hair currently was securely locked inside the space helmet turned around and hurried to help the two others currently loading things off their space shuttle to the cart behind their sandtrac. The cart was already nearly full of boxes of different sizes which contained food, scientific equipments and tools for all kinds of purposes...They still left the bigger structures inside the shuttle, the structures that they'd be using to build their more permanent residence. They would start building it the next week, when they'd have began with their assignments and studies already, there really was no time to waste.
"Sorry... I spaced out a little there..." Charley sighed but turned her look on the other two astronauts that had voluntereed along with her to go back to the shuttle and bring more stuff to their current basecamp.
"No pun intended..."
She heard the two others to let out small huffs and chuckles at this comment but to be fair, the all three of them had slight difficulties to concentrate on their task at hand at the moment as their eyes were constantly drawn to the alien lands surrounding them. It was still all new and exciting and right now everyone felt that they'd likely never get used to the fact that they were infact on a different planet. It was all very surreal, like a dream.
"It's just so breathtaking..." Charley then added as she lifted one of the boxes into the cart.
"I know, even if it looks like a one gigantic sandbox, it's a Martian sandbox!" A male voice joined in the conversation as he hauled a big crate across the small area of sand in-between the shuttle and the sandtrac. The woman, who was taller than the other two gave the man a look.
"Well, you should be thrilled to have all this sand to dig your shovel into, Lucas!" The woman chuckled via the radio waves but the man after he had lifted the heavy crate over the sides of the cart turned to face the taller woman their helmets nearly bumping into each other.
"It's not just scooping sand with a shovel! Geology is a precise science, Evelyn!" The man retorted back.
"Sure it is..." The woman snickered and Charley had to smile a little, it was common within this crew to joke around and to act that one's own branch of science was better than the other. Just a little game they'd picked up on their long, and after the first excitement, really boring trip across space.
"Well, not everyone takes joy on cutting up dead animals..." Lucas muttered back but gave Evelyn another glance as he continued.
"And let's face it: there are far more rocks than animals here in the first place, I believe we need geologists more than the biologists..."
"I know we ain't gonna find animals in here! But no one knows about the microscopic creatures that we could come across here! I mean this used to have a living biosphere once, there are traces of water that our satellites had picked up...!" Evelyn started and even if this was all fun and games, her voice started to have a tiny edge to it. They were all still very tired after their long trip through space and it effected them all differently, as for Evelyn, she had been cranky all morning.
"Dream all you want, you're mainly here to grow sallads..." Lucas chuckled back and even if Charley tried, she ended up snickering at this comment as well but Evelyn just stood there, not so amused.
"That's an important task and will determine a great deal whether or not us humans could one day live here! As in order for us to live here, we need to be able to grow our own food! So, you're welcome!" Evelyn answered and poked the shorter man on his chest with her gloved fingers which were, due to the thick fabric, a bit stiff. Every movement in these deep blue space suits were awkward to say the least. They were mainly designed to keep them alive, not comfortable.
Charley shook her head amused, looking at these two from the other side of the cart.
"Well, I think we need everybody here. And our main task, for all of us, is to find out if there once was life on Mars and whether it'll be possible to have and maintain life here..." She said and caused Evelyn and Lucas to turn their heads, as well as their whole bodies as the space suits were like bulky hard shells, to her direction.
"You're right... We're only messing with each other..." Evelyn's voice crackled through the radio waves again and she pushed Lucas on his side with a friendly but teasing manner, making the man sway a little.
"Dirt-man."
"Crazy lab-lady."
Charley shook her head but as she was to turn around to go get more stuff from the shuttle, her eyes darted on the fine sand next to the shuttle, a little further away but still close enough for her to see something that she hadn't noticed before.
"Guys..." She started and took a few steps forward to see this peculiar thing that had caught her interest.
"What?" Lucas' asked but let his eyes follow the direction Charley was pointing at.
"What do you think that is?" The female engineer asked and they all got still a bit closer to see what was there on their feet.
Evelyn bent down a little to take a closer look and she frowned.
"Looks like some sort of a trace..."
"Trace of what?" Lucas asked but leaned down to examine also, hovering behind Evelyn.
Evelyn carefully touched the sand above the weird yet strangely familiar looking print on the ground, gently and unintentionally sweeping fine sand over it.
"It looks like...a bootprint?" She said but her voice was filled with doubt.
"Yeah, sure..." Lucas huffed back.
"Well it does! Look at it!" Evelyn raised her voice a bit too high and the radio crackled due to these too high notes that made both Charley and Lucas flinch.
The man let out a sigh and the others could hear this deep exhale through their communication devices. He gave the trace another look but only shrugged his shoulders back.
"It could be anything."
Charley had been silently examining the trace with her eyes but then decided to give it a closer look as well and she got on her knees, which was a bit hard to do in this bulky suit but she managed and she let her eyes follow all these small ridges the trace had.
"It does look like a bootprint..." She only could add but even if she knew what she saw or what she thought she saw, it sounded crazy nevertheless.
Evelyn was quietly thinking but turned her look a bit further away.
"Look! There are more!" She then pointed out and all three of them slowly got up and walked around the shuttle, along this little pathway these curious traces were making.
"The traces are going around the shuttle..." Charley thought out loud as they circled their spacecraft, slowly, the sand gritting with their every step, underneath their big spaceboots. Lucas had stayed a bit behind though, his steps being more cautious.
"C'mon, guys... You do realize how silly you two sound? Bootprints? On Mars?"
"I didn't say they were bootprints! I said they look like bootprints!" Evelyn pointed out but then bent his back backwards a bit, glancing up at this huge space shuttle they were standing close to, to see if there would be something on the space shuttle itself that could cause these prints, like something dropping off it...But couldn't see or think of anything. How strange.
Charley carefully studied the traces on the sand once more before she gave the other two a look.
"Well. Maybe it's only pareidolia. This kind of an optical illusion...Like, you know when people see profiles on the rocks or familiar figures in the clouds..." The female engineer listed.
"The faces on Mars or on the Moon..." Lucas added and Charley nodded back.
"Exactly. Our minds are only built the way that we tend to search for the familiar shapes in the abstract..." Charley then concluded but still examined these traces that sure enough were really bearing a resemblance to the bootprints, even if slightly bigger bootprints than any of them would have. Yes, pareidolia could explain their reactions but not what had caused these strange traces...She raised her look and observed the serene scenery around them and noticed that the wind had picked up again, blowing gently across the desert planet, carrying fine dust. A sudden feeling of lonelyness swept through her while admiring this vast desert and she felt a shiver go through her.
"Well, whatever these are, they're fresh..." Evelyn concluded abruptly and caused Charley to startle and her sudden flow of emotions vanished as she now regarded the other woman who reached to her pocket and took out a small camera that had been built to endure harsh weather conditions.
"...since there was a big-ass storm last night, these would've been swept away during the night..." The taller woman said while trying to look via the camera's screen where she was pointing the thing, to get a clear shot as due to their helmets they couldn't use the camera the normal way.
"I'm taking a photo anyway. It's only interesting..." She added and with a bit of a clumsy way as the gloves they had were big she managed to snap a photo while Lucas huffed next to her, to her annoyance.
"I'd save the film for the more...interesting findings, Eve..."
"Aren't you a least bit curious about what could've caused these strange tracks?" Evelyn took a careful turn towards Lucas.
"Not really. I mean, those are nothing. Your mind only plays tricks on you, just like Charley said... Now, maybe we should actually do something important and continue with our current assignment? We need to haul all this stuff back to the basecamp and the trip back there takes ages with that turtle-of-a-vehicle...I want to set my meters and computers on already and not be here the whole day. We're on Mars for God's sake, our to-do-list is long as hell..." Lucas turned to their task again and started to fasten the boxes securely to the cart with a rope, shaking his head.
"Bootprints on Mars... Soon you're gonna propose that there are creatures here who'll walk on two feet like us..."
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Stoker took a bite of the protein bar he had just unwrapped. He leaned against the cold cave entrance, his brown eyes slightly squinted as he was scanning the red desert scenery infront of him while the still rising Sun was gently sweeping away the last remains of the night.
He munched his morning snack, small pieces dripping to his red camo-coloured shirt while a few of the long strands of hazle coloured hair that had escaped his hapzardous long ponytail danced in the small breeze. He took another bite of the bar before glancing back inside the cave where all his men were now hanging out, just waiting...
"Ugh, can we go already?!" Vinnie grunted while pacing to and fro, rubbing his hands together in an agitated manner, his body practically vibrating for all this repressed adrenaline. He then continued to throw his arms up and down, like a bird that didn't know how to fly, not really sure what to do with them since there wasn't actually a lot he could do in this cave that was now fully packed with Fighters and their bikes, the powerful two-wheels all parked around the cave, crammed into this space that could fit them all just barely. Stoker shook his head turning his look back on the desert again.
"No." He muttered, not really bothered by the young male's ever-growing frustration because A: it was nothing new and B: he couldn't care less whether or not Vinnie was enjoying himself.
"What are we waiting for then?!" Vinnie stopped and turned to him, looking at Stoker's back, his outcry still echoing in this cave long after the outburst. Stoker heaved a small sigh, giving the protein bar he was holding a look, wanting to concentrate on anything else than the loud young Fighter. Stoker studied the wrapping silently, it had writing in it in a strange language as they were ordered and shipped from Saturn but it did say "protein bar" in the shared Martian language that the Cave Mice along with the rats and sandraiders all spoke...and under it it said "contains protein from living organisms" whatever that meant... But as an Martian whose own planet didn't really produce food, enough anyway, he really couldn't complain or be too picky. As long as he could get something nutritious into his system that would keep him alive, he was fine.
"In order for us to fight we need the opponents as well, rookie. That's pretty basic warfare stuff..." Stoker explained, his voice staying calm and low, while still studying the protein bar, the weird smell of it lingering into his nose. He actually preferred not knowing what he was consuming at the moment... Godess only knew what those Saturnian folks ate... He quickly ate the rest of the bar crushing the wrapping and jamming it into the pocket of his camo pants, still leaning against the cave's cold walls and his eyes scanning the scenery.
"...can't we just...start without them?!" Vinnie bursted a glint of hope in his voice but quickly snapped his mouth shut as the rest of this big crew started to chuckle at this rather unusual suggestion. Vinnie's ears twitched and his tail lashed through the air while he crossed his arms, throwing annoyed glances at the other Fighters. A smirk appeared to Stoker's always a bit mischievious features and he finally turned around to face the youngest one of the Fighters.
"Why? You bored?"
"Yes, I'm bored!" The white furred male grunted loudly but sat down on a rock, with an emphasized gesture of dislike, hunching there, placing his head between his hands while listening to this loud laughing around him.
"Ha ha! Very funny, you guys! You are all just too old to whip some tail anymore!" He muttered.
"Hey, kiddo, we've been whipping tail long before you were even born!" One of the older Fighters shouted back.
"Yeah, exactly, now you're all just content to sit on your asses and hide in a cave!" Vinnie grunted back. Stoker shook his head while taking a few steps inside the cave, having his arms crossed and his look casted on the hard cave floor.
"Well, war is many things and you'll learn that war can be at times very boring. So get used to it, kiddo."
"And what if I don't want to?" Vinnie threw a glance at their Commander who only shrugged his shoulders back.
"You really don't have any options..."
"Man, whatta drag...I didn't sign up for this mindboggling boredom!" Vinnie grumbled his tail swishing on the cave floor.
"And I didn't sign up for hearing you rookies whining about stuff, but what can ya do..." Stoker mumbled back but already leaving Vinnie to sulk alone as he headed to this small bunch of Fighters all gathered around a map.
"So, spill it, what's the verdict." Stoker muttered, his mood not the best right now.
"Well..." Throttle started but gave a careful look at this older male who only kept his eyes on the map, not really in the mood for a chitchat or any mindless babbling. Throttle cleared his throat and gave the other Fighters standing around the map a look before he continued.
"We thought that if the Plutarkians are coming from the North...We could have a surprise attack if we were to hide and wait them here..." Throttle made a circle on the map using his index finger.
"...somewhere near the Mount Elysium..."
Stoker nodded and rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
"It could work..."
He then let out a sigh and took his portable VidCom that had been jammed to his vest pocket and gave it a look, it showed what time it was.
"...we still have to wait for the scouts to call us and let us know the Plutarkians exact coordinates and what route they'll be taking..."
"Maybe the Plutarkians have camped somewhere?" One of the Fighters thought out loud but Stoker only shook his head.
"I donno... War costs money and those stinkies could be many things but they sure love their money and don't want to spend it more than needed... But it's always a possibility. If that'll be the case and our scouts confirm that then we'll move more North..."
Stoker then put the portable VidCom pack to his pocket and gave a look around the cave.
"If you guys want to make a call to the Camp, I'll suggest you do that now... Since I have a feeling that we'll be out here a long time and the reception will only go worse the further we'll enter this damn desert...We're a long way from home, boys..."
The big bunch of raggety looking Fighters looked at each other and while mumbling something they all got up and started to do different things, maintaining bikes and guns, building a campfire so they could have one last good meal before the battles and some of them took their portable VidComs and dialled to the Camp, to call their families.
Stoker scratched his head and let out a sigh. He turned around and nearly bumped into this slender figure, the only female around.
"Oh, Harley...Sorry, didn't see you there..." He regarded the ginger coloured mechanic who had her red camos on and she was armed also as she had been permitted to come here with the rest of the Fighters even though Stoker hadn't really yet decided just how long she'd be allowed to follow them on their way to their next battle even if she usually stayed relatively close by to them as she was their mechanic as well as the medic.
"Stoker..." Harley nodded with this husky yet sensuel voice but kept her voice down as they were really close to each other right now. She felt Stoker's tail curl around her ankle before it slipped away again and a small smile appeared on her face as she glanced up at this older male.
"So... I was thinking..." She started and Stoker crossed his arms and listened.
"You told about these Earthlings... And I was just wondering...We don't yet know where their basecamp is..."
"Aha..." Stoker murmured.
"So, don't you think we should pay a visit there...? We don't even know what these guys want. And what's more, we don't want them to hang around too close to the Camp..." Harley lead the conversation. Stoker huffed and smiled back.
"You wanna go there and spy on the aliens?"
"Well.. I know you ain't gonna let me come to join you guys in the frontiers... And it'll take hours before there's gonna be any action anyway..." Harley shrugged her shoulders and observed the male infront of her. Stoker nodded thoughtfully and a small silence fell between them.
"It's good to have you here, gorgeous. You always think ahead."
"Well, someone needs to..."
Stoker snorted at this and gave a look around the cave before his eyes fell on someone particular.
"You can go and check what those...people are up to. And take the exact coordinates of their basecamp. Take the rookie with you."
Harley changed her look to the direction Stoker was currently looking at and her blue eyes landed on Vinnie who was now lying on the cave floor on a starfish position.
"You want me to take Vinnie with me? Why?"
Stoker gave her a look back but changed it back to the white furred male who was now moving his arms and legs like making a snowangel on a dry land.
"Because... If you don't take him with you somewhere faraway from here, I'm gonna shoot him..." Stoker muttered and Harley let out a chuckle.
"Fine... " She then touched gently Stoker's chin, turning him to face her again.
"I'll be right back."
"Can't wait..." Stoker smirked, raising her eyebrow and Harley, after winking at him, made her way to Vinnie.
"Hey...kiddo! Let's go!"
"Go?! What?! Where?!" Vinnie already scampered up so fast he nearly fell back down again.
"We'll take a lil' joyride..." Harley replied and walked to her bike whereas Vinnie ran and jumped on his red racer and before Harley even got her helmet on Vinnie already gassed off.
"Aaawhoooooo! Freeeeedoooom! Eat dust old-timers! This mouse is back in the saddle!"
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