Invasion Mars: Kirov Series, #72

By John Schettler

ABOUT INVASION MARS:

After a whirlwind campaign to discover and eliminate Krothi bases in the Solar System, the action on Mars intensifies when the Vanguard of the alien fleet arrives early with 36 ships. With only 24 Earthforce Ships provisioned for active duty, Karpov relies on his inherent skill to try and defeat the Kroth in detail.

At the same time, hidden Kroth forces on Mars and others reaching the moons Phobos and Deimos, begin a round of new attacks on Earthforce bases and outposts on Mars. Earthforce struggles to surge ships and Marines to Mars in a wave of successive convoys, while Karpov must divide his attention between close support of Mars operations and his campaign to scour the inner and outer system of Krothi support bases.

Meanwhile, Fedorov begins a series of Recon missions aimed at finding any hidden Kroth "Sleepers" on Mars. His efforts lead him to some amazing discoveries about this alien adversary, their biology, and a greater threat that may already lie hidden right beneath the surface of Mars. An attempt to purge their nests with  stronger weapons leads to a disaster that underscores more unknown capabilities of the Kroth, and shakes Fedorov and Karpov when Director Kamenski makes a startling revelation. Answers to unsettled mysteries rooted deep in the Kirov Series are revealed here for the first time, and long time series readers will not want to miss the sequence now underway as the "Mars Trilogy." Here is Volume two of that group—Invasion Mars!

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Schettler
• Release date: Apr 26, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224505838

John Schettler

A prolific writer with 75 books, John Schettler achieved early recognition in winning the Silver Medal for Science Fiction in Foreword Magazine's annual competion, and scoring a 9.5/10 with Reader's Digest for his 5-book Time Travel series opener, Meridian. He went on to author the longest story ever written, the massive 64 volume Kirov Series, also a Time travel Military Fiction and alternate history of WWII. John's latest work is a new Epic Fantasy series, The Chronicles of Innisfail, released April of 2022.

Book preview

Prologue

Part I – The Fleet

Part II – Recovery

Part III – The Outer System

Part IV – Nowhere Land

Part V – Cimmeria

Part VI – Elysium

Part VII – The Night Cave

Part VIII– Timbuktu

Part IX – The City of Night

Part X – Moon Child

Part XI – Song of Rothilion

Part XII – Blood of the Ancients

Afterword

Author’s Note:

Dear Readers,

This book is part of the long Kirov Saga, but can also be enjoyed as a standalone story. It is, however, the third book of a trilogy after the prelude book Goliath does the work of moving the officers and crew of Kirov forward in time to Director Kamenski’s era to undertake a dangerous and daring mission. In that prelude Kirov, (the ship) is left behind and Karpov and company (all the main characters) lead us into space to go and divert a dangerous asteroid on a collision course with Terra, Mother Earth.

After this prelude, the three books in the Mars Trilogy begin with Volume I Earthforce Mars, where we learn of the great fleet Humanity has built over a 100 years as they prepare for the next coming of the Ice Men, now known as the Kroth. Who better to command such a fleet by one Vladimir Karpov. The story continues in Volume II Invasion Mars, when Fedorov makes some alarming discoveries of the Kroth hiding what could be a vast Army in the ice sheets beneath the surface of Mars. This and other Earth shaking discoveries drive the story forward to Volume III, The Sons of Ares.

In Book III, Fedorov’s insatiable thirst for historical knowledge leads him to a hidden chasm beneath a mesa in the Labyrinth of Night. There he finds a small ancient city, and in near perfect condition. He will soon meet its makers, the Sons of Ares, and lead them on a journey that becomes the survival of the Martian civilization and the hope of Humanity as it struggles towards its own advancements to build a civilization on Earth.

So if you have just stumbled on this book, it would be wise to backtrack and begin this late season series evolution with Kirov Series Volume #70, Goliath. That book sets up the threat that must be addressed here in the three Mars Trilogy books, ending with this one The Sons of Ares. Another starting point would just be volume #71, Earthforce Mars.

Throughout the Kirov Series, a Grand Imperative has been spoken off in fearful whispers, and has been the subject of discussions throughout the long Saga. As this subplot finally resolves in the coming volumes, you will learn just what the Grand Imperative is, and what Finality it portends. It has been one of the great mysteries introduced in the series—what caused the gordian knot of Time that ended causality on earth? Whether that happens or not, the answer to that mystery is in this latest evolution of the Kirov Series—the Mars trilogy and the books that follow it.

Karpov and company thought it was Goliath, the great asteroid they faced in Volume #70, but Kamenski has more to say on that subject. Now our heroes face their most difficult battle with the coming of the Main Kroth fleet, and not even Director Kamenski will be prepared for what happens next when Fedorov sets his mind to exploring the Labyrinth of Night.

Enjoy!

—John

Prologue

In war, prepare for peace; in peace, prepare for war.

– Sun Tzu

So this is where they put the damn thing, thought Karpov. It was a large building under a huge arching transparent dome, the kind that might be used on Mars to enclose a large area. But this was not Mars; not that cold, parched, barren red desert of a planet, infested with sleeping aliens, like an old house with termites.

The sunlight poured in and Karpov could see the puffy cumulus clouds in the blue sky above. There weren’t very many visitors here that day at the new space museum along the coast near Vandenburg AFB in California. Fedorov and Karpov had taken a brief leave to go ashore as they called it, and revisit places on Earth they had always wanted to see before the final battle to save them. In California, they toured the famous national parks, Yosemite, Sequoia, Joshua Tree near the Desert, and Lassen in the north. They dined in fine restaurants in San Francisco and LA, and today, before he left to return to the fleet, Karpov wanted to see this museum.

It had relics dating as far back as the first space program his new ship had been named after, Apollo. Old capsules used for the first daring Moon landing took prominent places. Armstrong, Collins, and Buzz Aldrin flew them to take that famous first ‘small step for man, and the giant leap for mankind’ to the moon. He was curious to look inside the capsules and see the orbiters, and true to scale replicas of the many rovers that had first been sent to Mars: Viking, Perseverance, Spirit, Opportunity, Curiosity. But the real reason he came was to see one particular exhibit.

He stood before it now in his long grey trench coat, still wearing a black Ushanka that prominently displayed the anchor and gold feathers of the Russian Navy just above his forehead. There it was, the name of the craft on a plaque that listed the dates of the operation he would never forget. They were engraved in bold letters: THESEUS – The ship that stopped Goliath.

Karpov smiled, remembering how he took command of this small spacecraft and made that first bold trip deep into the outer system, beyond the orbit of blue Neptune. As dangerous as it was, he enjoyed it immensely, for there he had fought and killed Krothi ships, and then used 100 Megaton Nukes to divert the course of the massive asteroid Goliath, and all its cousins brought there by the Kroth. After that mission, they had received the warning from Director Kamenski in 2030. A large Krothi fleet was approaching earth, but it would take just over 100 Earth years for it to arrive in 2135. Earth had that one precious century to prepare, and build a fleet to oppose them. And they gave it to Karpov. He still swelled with pride to think that, and it was all because of that one daring mission on Theseus.

He took a deep breath. Saluted the ship, and then turned to see a father and his young son had been watching him from across the room.

Who’s that daddy? the young boy said to his father.

That’s the man who keeps us all safe, said the father. Those words meant everything to Karpov, and they made him realize the consequences of any failure in the confrontation that was now impending. The Main Kroth fleet had entered the Oort cloud the previous year, and they would reach the Kuiper belt in a matter of weeks now. When they crossed that barrier and stepped over the line formed by the orbit of Neptune, Karpov was going to be waiting for them to make good the faith that man and his young son had in him, the faith that the entire world had in him. This was one battle that he simply had to win.

He turned and walked briskly off on the polished floor, casting one sidelong glance at the young boy and giving him a wink and a smile. It wasn’t about his ego any longer, or his track record of unbroken victories. It was now about that father and son, and he was not going to let them down.

Part I

The Fleet

It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, and with it, everything honorable and glorious.

― President George Washington

Chapter 1

20 MAY 2132, SEC

It had been an amazing spectacle, huge flooding water on the surface of Mars in a way scientists never thought they would ever see it. They had probed and prodded and sifted the silts of Mars in places showing obvious signs of prior erosion by water, but never found the water itself, unless they deliberately retrieved water ice from the poles and then melted it in a lab. That was as close as they had come.

But on that day, water had surged out from the north polar cap through Vastitas Borealis and down into the lowlands of Acidalia Planitia, the shallow flood was 700 kilometers wide, with some of the water moving east towards Cydonia, and the bulk of the flood passing on south towards Chryse Planitia. The ground was slowly elevating as it moved south, so the flood tides slowed and eventually came to a halt just before the old landing site of the Mars Pathfinder in 1997. Had it continued another 300 plus Kilometers, it would have found the narrow veins of Shalbatana, Ares, and Tiu Valleys, and the wider flow basin on Simud Valley. These channels could have taken the water on into Xanthe Terra, and had the flows been strong enough, the flood could have reached into Aurorae Chaos, the Ganges Chasma, Eos and Capri Chasma, and perhaps on into Marineris Valley.

Initial evacuation warnings for both Cydonia bases and Marineris were cancelled when the floodwaters failed to reach the Simud and Ares Valleys, its waters collected by the Wahoo, Yuty and Wabash craters, with the rest slowly receding. That whole area was a scene of frosty mist as the water boiled in the low pressure to become water vapor. For the next several months, the atmosphere of Mars was heavy with that water vapor, and the incidence of sand storms diminished considerably. Then, as the year grew old, and the temperatures dropped, most of that water vapor was again finding its way to the North Polar region to fall as misty wet frost on the CO2 Ice layer and then flow down through fissures and cracks in the cap to freeze solid again as water Ice.

It had been a stunning and spectacular manipulation of the climate and ecosystem on Mars, and Karpov had no doubt that the Kroth had engineered that sudden meltwater flood. But how? Why? Did they think they could flood out Earthforce bases at Cydonia and Marineris Valley? He thought that a foolish objective.

Fedorov saw the flood in the same light as the sudden failure of the ice wall in North America that had sent surges of water into the North Atlantic, raising sea levels enough to erode away the land bridge to Africa at Gibraltar and reflood the drying Mediterranean Sea in a matter of months instead of centuries. He thought this to be the base root of the ancient myths of the Flood on Earth present in so many early cultures, like the story of Noah and his Arc.

One thing we’ve learned about the Kroth, he asserted, is that they engineer on planetary scales. They can move massive planetoids and asteroids about, mine them out like moles, and hurl them at larger bodies as weapons, and all that while we were still throwing stones at one another as cave men." Yet a sound reason for the sudden flood event escaped Fedorov as well. He took a stab at it this way.

Well, we know they had slabs or pools of frozen Gel in the ice. Perhaps they were trying to move a large mass of ice to create a big cavern up north, or to give them easier access to deeper gel pools that had been buried under thick layers of ice.

That’s as good as anything I can come up with, said Karpov. I can certainly see no clear military reason for causing such a flood.

As for the 60 Hovercraft that Fedorov had awakened during his visit to the Sand Sea of Utopia Undae, they skirted well west of the flood tide, around Tempe Terra and on into Tharsis. Karpov thought they then vanished into the hundreds of open pit holes there leading down into a complex of Lava tubes. The Kroth were there, he knew, because several Earthforce patrols sent into those lava tubes were never heard from again, and after three disappeared, the Marine Corps decided to let sleeping dogs lie, and ceased operations there. They would not send men into hidden tunnels that the enemy knew well. In stead they would wait for the Kroth to emerge and fight them out on the open ground; on the surface. And in the meantime, the Air assets would send 2000 pound bombs into those open skylight pits, one by one.

While Karpov wasn’t happy to leave known Kroth lairs unscoured, he understood the Marine Corps’ reasoning, then took his Navy out beyond the Inner Belt to Jupiter and Saturn, he drove the Kroth out of the Galilean moons of Jupiter, seeing them flee to Saturn’s Titan. Then he went there in such force that the Kroth would not even give battle with the few ships they still had in the system. He watched then flee beyond Neptune through the Kuiper Belt and into the Oort cloud. And then Director Kamensky called Fedorov, and he knew why.

Karpov was studying a grand map of the Solar System, deciding where he would send the precious Squadrons of the Earthforce Fleet entrusted to him. The Whirlwind campaigns of the previous years were over now, and he was confident that the system inside the orbit of Neptune was well scoured and cleaned of Krothi assets—except those on Mars, which was still contested ground. He had occupied Ceres, driven them ruthlessly away from Jupiter, and then finally returned to Saturn to take possession of the big moon Titan. The Engineers went in first, looking for booby traps of bombs inside the network of Kroth tunnels there. None were found.

His probes and satellites were now everywhere in the outer system, and he was confident that no hidden lairs remained behind him. The Kroth might still have small hornet’s nests among the billions of smaller objects in the Kuiper Belt, but none between the orbits Neptune and Mars. That all belonged to the Earthforce Navy now, if they could keep it.

Karpov realized that the longer he kept the battle out here, many Light hours from the distant pale blue dot that was Earth, the more time he would buy for the provisioning of that final inner line of five orbiting battle stations around Earth, and the military mining of the Inner Asteroid Belt to hinder any advance into the inner system. A kind of SOSUS network has already been set up in the areas where the Belt thinned out and created gaps for easy Pulse Jumps to move through.

As he studied the map, he was trying to put himself into the mind of his enemy. What did they want here? How would they attack once they crossed the line of the Kuiper Belt? How would they give battle?

Fedorov was a great help at his side. They are very invested in Mars, he said. The Ground war there is really just beginning. They have thousands of troops there, and uncounted more as Sleepers still waiting to go active. I would therefore say that Job One for them would be to force their way past our defenses at Saturn and Jupiter and make a beeline for Mars. They’ll want to make that their forward operating base for any further operation against Earth.

Very correct, Fedorov, said Karpov. So we must block that advance, and stay in their face out here."

But what if they just jump right for the inner system? We don’t have enough ships to keep a really strong reserve inside the Inner Bel, and yet be able to match them out here.

True, but I can be a real nuisance out here if they try to bypass my battlegroups. I can strike at their Assault landing carriers, go after any supply depot of base they establish, fight like hell to keep our bases at Saturn and Jupiter active. I’m not just going to set up a line and try to block them. I’m going after any vital thing this fleet brings with it to sustain combat operations here. They must have scores of supply ships carrying ordnance they need for replenishment. Yes? Well I’m going to force them to provide it with heavy escort, and threaten it any chance I can. We’re going to be making some real javelin thrusts here, my friend. So I’m going to be relying on you to thread a few needles when I move.

We’ll get it done, said Fedorov. He had been working diligently to master the Astrogation systems, and the new Gravity Breaking Modules (GBM) had all been installed on the fleet warships in the last several years.

After Karpov struck at Titan, the last five ships of their Vanguard were forced to retreat to the outer system and then flee into the Oort cloud to escape the Admiral’s wrath. There they hid themselves and waited for their main fleet to draw near. They knew they would be rejoining it in shame, for their mission had mostly failed. Yet they had at least placed recovery Engineers on the two Martian Moons as ordered, and those had been able to take bold leaps off Phobos into space and descend into the Martian Atmosphere shielded by a gravity bubble projected around them. There they set about their main objective—waking the Sleepers who lay in their hidden thousands beneath the ice and sands of Mars. This they had done, but these troops all had to be armed, and trained, and the Vanguard had lost five of its six Assault Landers in combat with the Humans. So they had been unable to land the weapons and supplies intended for the Sleepers. More were needed.

That was a shameful failure, and they would be chastised when the Grand Subedar arrived with the main fleet. Yet their life gels might yet be preserved, because they would be providing crucial intelligence gathered about the Human fleet—its size, composition, its manner of moving and fighting.

Yet Fedorov was now intent on changing its manner of moving. With the new ability to project a gravity bubble fore and aft. Pulse Jumps using the main Plasma Engines were now much more precise. The gravity domes enabled ships to move much faster, and stop much quicker, shortening the hours long breaking sequence after a ship fell out of Hyperspace into Space Normal. That once required a full burn by the Fusion engine system, all vectored forward to slow the ships down enough so they could maneuver again, and in that interval their course was set and univariable, making them very vulnerable in combat.

That was now no longer the case. The gravity domes would be projected aft after falling out of Hyperspace, and combined with the fusion engine breaking, it would now only take minutes before the ship could slow and maneuver, instead of the long hours required before. Only very long Pulse Jumps, or full burns on the helical Plasma engine would require more lengthy breaking time. This made Earthforce ships swift and nimble. They could make a series of great leaps with Pulse Jumps, and make the final jump very short to stop on a proverbial dime and be able to turn and fight, or jump yet again in a different direction.

Before they had been like a column of plodding infantry. Now Earthforce Squadrons were like swift cavalry, and Fedorov had taken charge of writing the Astrogation programs that were now being taught to Astrogators on every ship in his landmark book Combat Astrogation Planning. That was now required reading for every Astrogator, and taught in detail in the academies for all aspiring Space Navigators in Earthforce.

The only thing to be forbidden were so called Time Jumps. Those would be too complex and see ships operating in a spaghetti of varying meridian threads. So maneuvers in the 4th Dimension were forbidden within the fleet, with one exception—the flagship Apollo. While nothing was written in the minds of both Fedorovs and Karpovs, and Everything was possible, they knew that the patience and forbearance of Mother Time was well worn. To reverse an adverse combat, Karpov and Fedorov had used their Kamenski Device to reset that operation and prevail. That single maneuver through Time had created and made all those present doppelgangers, and that put a stop to any further use of the Kamenski Device. For those duplicate selves could not endure the experience again and see four Karpovs and Fedorovs result. Time would permit only one Doppelganger for any living being. An attempt to create another would fail by annihilation, and there would be no exceptions whatsoever.

So for Karpov and Fedorov, this coming battle was a case of play it as it lays. They had no magic tricks to in their haversacks. It would have to be won by skill, endurance, grit, ingenuity, and courage, but the Kamenski Device was now locked in a vault, unusable.

Chapter 2

Dispositions

Karpov was pleased that the ground fighting on Mars settled down, and it was now a situation where the only Kroth seen were appearing in very small numbers as recon patrols. There were no further big attacks on Earthforce facilities, which provided time to lay in many more troops, heavy armor, supplies; and to build more bases. Earthforce set up another high volcanic nest on Ascraeus Mons, and on the Tharsis Tholus. He wanted bases at high elevation that would be difficult to reach on the ground. There were 1060 mapped pit holes in the Tharsis region, and when the Kroth emerged, he wanted to be holding the high ground over them.

Arisa Mons, having the biggest caldera of any of the volcanoes at a diameter of 120 kilometers, now took the place of the large base that died on Olympus Mons. And during this steady buildup of power on the ground, little was seen of the Kroth. It was as if they realized that trying to fight the Humans with no fleet support or air power would be futile.

They’ve gone to ground, Fedorov, said Karpov. They’re waiting for their fleet to arrive so they can operate with naval support here, but if I get things my way, that will never materialize.

What about Kamenski’s warning?

Fedorov was referring to a recent call stating that the Kroth Fleet might be arriving much sooner than he first predicted. It had been a year since Karpov had completed his outer system operations and seized Titan as a major base of operations for Earthforce. During that time a new Squadron arrived monthly in Mars orbit, and convoys of escorted supply ships moved back and forth from Earth to Mars unimpeded. Then Kamenski called with a renewed warning, and with more news that shocked both Fedorov and Karpov.

Gentlemen, you may want to sit down if you are not already seated. I have some rather ominous news. Our latest Walker returned from 2135, to report that the Kroth reached our system much sooner than we were led to believe by earlier Temporal recon missions to our future.

Karpov and Fedorov were seated in the Ready Room of Apollo, listening to Kamenski’s message played on the table mounted speakerphone.

The initial wave of the Kroth Main Fleet will be here very soon. In fact, it entered the Oort cloud last year, about the time of the great flood tide on Mars. Some of our analysts think that was a celebratory event, in response to the arrival of the fleet. So yes, the Sleepers are being awakened now, but they will need time to get armed and trained, so look for supply convoy missions aimed at Mars as being at the top of the list for the Krothi Admirals.

But sir, Karpov sent back. How could this be so? Didn’t your temporal scout nail down the fleet’s arrival time earlier? We staked our whole production and deployment schedule on a 2135 arrival date.

Some minutes passed before Kamenski’s reply came back. Yes, Admiral Karpov, it was most disturbing. Remember the little temporal reset you pulled to reverse an engagement some time ago? Well, the Kroth can do the very same. We now conclude, and the entire Directorate is behind this intelligence, that the Kroth initiated a temporal reset shortly after the retreat of the last few ships from the Vanguard. In that replay, they became aware of the need for and earlier arrival here, and they made that so. This does not mean that you will have to refight the many small victories to you stacked up against them. In fact, those events were all part of the replay. You’ve been living in it from the onset of your first operations, and we have no memory or awareness of anything that may have happened before. Our systems, and those of the Professor Dorland’s Meridian Team find no discrepancies beyond this one thing—the arrival date of the main Kroth fleet, which is nigh at hand, Admiral. I’m very sorry to reveal all this, but we must face the facts as we know them now. The first wave of the Main Kroth Fleet will have passed through the Kuiper Belt in a matter of days—by 28 MAY this very month. Sorry I could not have sent this warning sooner, but our Temporal scout only just returned with this intelligence. There’s a good deal more, but that should be enough for this call. Plan and act accordingly, gentlemen. You have a fight on your hands. And remember, no nukes, and no temporal maneuvers. Kapish? I’ll stand by for questions.

Fedorov gave Karpov a dumfounded stare. We’ve been snookered, he said. Everything we’ve been doing of late is part of a replay event the Kroth initiated simply to get their fleet here much sooner.

"Not good news, Fedorov, but at least we have 90 percent of the fleet mobilized now. I have only seven cruisers and four destroyers in Earth orbit still provisioning, and I’m inclined to leave then there as a reserve and guard force. We also have the two Longbeards still loading their carrier magazines and getting ready for space trials soon with their air wings. Those last eleven cruisers and destroyers can be held in Earth orbit and assigned to escort those two carriers, Altair and Capella. But this means we only have eight days before the Kroth have crossed the Kuiper belt. In fact, they are passing through it now."

Do you want to fight there?

"No, too constricted. We’ll make first contact somewhere between the Kuiper Belt and Neptune. If they come with overwhelming force, I’ll fight a stubborn delaying action and slowly fall back on Titan at