[PART 70]

DAY THIRTEEN: 14 September 1938

At several locations around the world small stay-behind units were still making good on their efforts to attack local occupation forces as well as their lightly guarded supply depots. They had also attacked several Martian concentration camps in Australia, South America, Southern Africa, the Soviet Union and central China. Thousands of people rescued in occupied areas were now attempting to hide as best they could from Martian Bs and “Martian humans” now on the hunt for any people they could find. Small “brush wars” were breaking out in several Martian controlled areas as our stay-behind and Tango forces became better organized. Several areas were reporting successes in hit-and-run raids on small groups of Martians.

One of the cities in Southern Africa

Evacuations from the west coast of Africa at Santo Antonia do Zaire and Ambriy had begun. The area still in the hands of national forces was the only ‘safe’ area along the coast. Hundreds of thousands had fled to the area attempting to board one of hundreds of ships of all sizes which had sailed to the rescue. After picking up survivors the ships were making their way to the small island of St. Helena nearly 1200 miles to the west in the mid-Atlantic. St. Helena is best remembered as the last prison refuge for Napoleon who died there in 1821. Now it would serve as a refuge for thousands fleeing Africa from the bloody Martians. With a population a little over 4000 they had a big job ahead of them.

When the Committee learned of the evacuation several warships including two aircraft carriers were sent to aid in the evacuation. We also shut down our radar station on St. Helena so as to limit any attention the Martians may pay to the island in the future.

Overnight it was reported that several special-forces underwater teams deployed from submarines had set explosive devices on 26 small Martian water craft used to patrol the Red Sea. The Martians had constructed a small docking facility at Port Sudan making it an inviting target for our underwater teams. This close in work sank 25 of the boats. Just before leaving the area the three submarines involved in the operation surfaced and rocketed the facility setting much of it on fire. It would be a while before the Martians would be able to use the small facility again. Humans still held the high ground on the oceans.

THE MARTIANS CALL FOR EARTH’S SURRENDER

Proof that our attacks on Martian Command Centers had greatly disrupted Martian combat activities came when what was thought to be the new Martian A Prime commanding the invasion

(taking over after the first had been killed during the opening attack on the planet) issued a call for Earth’s surrender. The Martian A Prime had recently landed at Giza after our polar and Giza attacks taking direct command of Martian invasion operations. (Our radars were able to spot several Martian machines leaving orbit to land at Giza.) This was proof of a fundamental Martian weakness. If we could somehow remove Martian high level commanders the single minded Martians could be greatly disrupted. We have understood for some time most Martians were not thinkers they were followers. Command and control was in the ‘hands’ of very few top Martians.

Just before the radio message was sent all radio jamming world-wide stopped. The surrender demand came in over several frequencies and was clear as could be. It was issued in English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese and Russian.

There were many national leaders who responded including my friend Winston and not one of them considered surrendering. To say the least many of their replies were quite colorful. The Committee sent one of our own.

For a few precious minutes while the Martians awaited our response the radio waves cleared. Taking advantage of the clear airwaves numerous military units and cities which had been cut off were able to send and receive messages. Once again the Martians had proved themselves to be fallible and thus could be defeated.

THE GROUND WAR PRESSES ON

The Martians had not halted their advances along most fronts even though they continued to slow at several points. More cities were being bypassed as attacking them had proved too costly. Martian Bs, hybrids and ‘Martian humans’ were being deployed around bypassed cities along warring fronts as Martian A forces supplied with all sizes of Walkers and armored vehicles raced to capture vast stretches of land. Martian Flying Machines were still being deployed but mostly with combined forces for front line units and not against cities. With much of our air forces now being redeployed to defend numerous cities it was felt most would be able to hold on as we battled Martians in open ground. For the most part national combat aircraft and Committee Thunder Jets would guard the cities and other populated areas while a majority of the more powerful ground based Phoenix IIs would stay on the hunt for Martian Flying Machines as well as in support of our ground forces.

Committee naval forces shifted much of their resources now focusing on over-site protection of ships involved in rescue operations of which there were many as evacuations increased. The fleets were still supporting coastal combat operations wherever possible but were now additionally tasked with sending out strong combat patrols to aggressively hunt down and destroy any Martian water craft they could locate. This threat had recently been reported in several areas including sizable deployments in the Mediterranean and Red Seas. With general control of the air we were prepared to take and hold full control of many of Earth’s water ways.

Even as Martian troop and equipment losses grew they continued to press forward. Martian front line units simply did not pause to preserve rear forces which had fallen to our attacks. As ever the Martians seemed to be of one mind set – attack and continue to attack as long as they had the ground forces and equipment to keep on the offensive no matter what the cost. Certainly they did not care for their dead and wounded as humans cared for our own. In some locations, notably in South Asia and the Amazon Jungle, stay-behind forces were focusing on killing wounded Martians abandoned by their front line units. As far as they were concerned any dead Martian was one less Martian to deal with.

THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

By this thirteenth day of the Second Martian War most of the continental land masses in the southern hemisphere were under Martian control. Much of Australia was under Martian occupation with the exception of south east Lower-Sydney, a section of the Great Divide Range where a large guerrilla army had formed and a small coastal patch centered around Burketown north on the Gulf of Carpentar. It was at Burketown where Australian Army Groups were finally able to hold the line and halt the bloody Martian advances. The Australian fighters were being supplied by ships of the Australian and Committee Navies and being supported by an almost continues barrage of fire by battleships and destroyers firing along the full line of defense as well as strong air attacks.

During this fighting evacuation women and children were put on ships to sail around the north of Australia under surface and air cover to the northern island of New Zealand. New Zealand’s northern island was still under our control and at this point was nearly completely surrounded by hundreds of combat ships of all kinds. It had become the most heavily defended piece of ground on Earth by naval forces. The Martians had yet to attack the area with ground forces even though air attacks had occurred earlier in the war. It would be from this group of warplanes that a major counter attack on Martian coastal formations would sail.

The Martians had also landed on several South Pacific islands. In these invasions it would be the swamps and jungles which would greatly slow any Martian advances. Tanks, medium and small Walkers simply could not maneuver in these difficult areas causing many of these islands to be bypassed as unimportant.

Gibson Desert, Australia:

Much of South America was now under Martian control except a rather vast section of the center of the continent around the Amazon Basin. Although much of the forest/jungle had been damaged by Martian Heat-Rays, Red Weed and massive thunderstorms the Martians had not yet advanced deeply into its interior. Millions of people had fled populated centers into the Amazon’s protective cover in areas not yet destroyed but it was only a matter of time before the Martians made their move on its vast interior.

All of Madagascar and Africa were under Martian control except a small pocket on the west coast of Africa centered around Santo Antonio do Zaire where evacuations were continuing at a fever pace. It would not be long, despite the massive naval presence off the coast, before this area would fall to the Martians.

With this much southern territory under Martian control it is not surprising to note that despite limited resources Martian air patrols were starting to increase over vast areas of the South Pacific, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. At this point they did not need as many flying machines to support ground combat operations in the southern hemisphere which allowed them greater access to the wide ocean expanses. Even though the enemy had fewer air resources they were still able to make hit and run attacks on our ships and they could launch aircraft from any number of locations. Many small islands could expect attacks from the air at any time.

Despite the fact we still had formidable naval and air forces in the south including our powerful submarine fleets and were still fighting in many areas, effectively speaking we had lost effective control of the southern half of the planet!

THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

With a much larger landmass in the northern hemisphere when compared to the south it was not unexpected that Martian forces would require much greater resources and a greater expenditure of time and effort to conquer the area. Nevertheless, their efforts by this thirteenth day of war had brought great success to their war efforts in this half of our world. At this point they were winning and pushing hard on most fronts with only a few lines of battle halted by some very determined Earth armies. Over all however most of their objectives were being met and one may expect – well on schedule.

In North America Martians had crossed the Gulf of Mexico and landed in southern Florida (now much flooded) pushing north to Jacksonville. On the southern United States border they had fought north with heavy losses to a line from north of Los Angeles to Mt. Whitney east to Amarillo, Texas, Fort Worth, Waco and on to Beaumont. Fort Worth and Houston along with several other cities along the line were now behind Martian front lines and cut off, but had not been captured. Cable and burst messages were still getting through as heavy bombers supported by Phoenix II fighters and Thunder Jets continued to hit Martian forces at nearly every line of Martian advance.

On the northern U.S. border Martian forces had fought along a line from Portland Oregon on the west coast to Billings, Montana to just north of St. Paul, Minnesota and were being held just north of Green Bay. Enemy forces had overrun Detroit but had by-passed Cleveland and Buffalo deciding to surround them and continue fighting south. In Canada, Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal had all ended fighting and contact with the Canadian government still operating out of a special train on the move was becoming spotty at best.

Montreal, Canada

In the European theater of war the Martians were in heavy contact with Committee and British forces positioned just north, east and west of central London. In close hand-to-hand combat London defenders had halted Martian advances at least for now. London’s deep defenses had proven to be quite strong and were not folding. Half of Ireland was under Martian control as Irish, Scottish and Committee bombers flying out of Cork pounded Martian front line units on a twenty-four hour basis. Air losses had been heavy but the Martians had greatly slowed their advances both north and south.

On the continent the Martians had fought to a line from the Bay of Biscay on the west, south of Bonn, north of the outskirts of Warsaw to Kharkov and Stalingrad. It would be out of Stalingrad that Stalin unleashed his Siberians, arguably the toughest combat forces he had. At the cities’ northern gates the Martians had been stopped cold by a tremendous combined Siberian armor and artillery barrage which would last for two full days. No living Martian would enter Stalingrad at least not for long.

Much of Portugal and Spain and more than half of Italy now lay behind Martian lines with the eternal city of Rome surrounded on three sides. The Vatican was under evacuation as they explosively sealed the catacombs. Earlier the Pope had sent out an envoy to “speak to the Martians”. The five man group were eviscerated upon contact with the Martians.

In the east all of Mongolia and much of China was occupied except for a section of southern China centered around the exiled government which had fled to Changsha. All of Japan was also Martian controlled except for a tough pocket of resistance centered around the port city of Yohohama. The Japanese government was in the final stages of evacuating their headquarters to Okinawa. Two Japanese task forces had formed off the coast of Yohohama including the carriers Zuikaka and Shokaku to aid in the evacuation. The old Japanese sea plane carrier Wakamiya formed the core of a task force waiting off of Okinawa. The American carrier USS Saratoga and the Japanese heavy cruiser Myoko formed a battle group hitting targets both north and south of Yohohama. For the time being the Martians were being held, but just barely and with great loss of life. It was estimated the area could be held for no longer than 48 hours.

NEW MARTIAN COMMAND CENTERS

It did not take long for the Martians to reestablish new command centers to replace the loss of their polar bases. Their new northern base was established in Greenland, inland from Skaer Fjorden just west of King Frederik VIII Land. Radar intelligence, now greatly limited in the far north, showed an increase of activity in the area but confirmation came only when Icelandic Special Forces made their way to the site. And considering the weather that was no easy task. The new Martian base was once again three sided but much smaller than the old one. It was no more than one mile on each side with a small tower in the center and few defensive Heat-Ray facilities. It appeared to be guarded by no more than two dozen flying machines on patrol and very little in the way of Walkers or ground combat vehicles. There were no visible human pens, at least not yet, and the facility had the look of being only temporary. At least the Martians had learned to constantly have Martian Flying Machines over flying their command centers.

In the south strong forces had been spotted landing on South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic. Submarine reconnaissance soon reported this was in fact the new Southern Martian Command Base. As in Greenland this new center was a greatly reduced version of the old southern base, no greater than one mile on each of its three sides. Why they would establish a command center on a relatively small island rather than Tasmania, the tip of South America or southern Africa all of which were firmly under their control we could not understand. One theory put forward at the time was that the command group on Mars was always separated and perhaps this tradition had been continued on Earth. This area is well isolated.

Considering how far away these new centers were from a majority of our available combat forces especially in the south it was going to be difficult but not impossible to attack them in strength. We began to plan these attacks immediately.

Martian primary attacks and occupied territories – 14 September 1938

DAY FOURTEEN: 15 September 1938

In the early hours of this cold September morning a phone call came into our Committee command center in Lower-London on one of the few operational lines from one of the many civilian reporters tasked with covering and describing the greatest war on Earth for his future readers – if any. Before the line went dead he reported on what he was seeing. He was reporting events near London but what he saw could have been seen at any number of places on Earth – the report would have been much the same.

“And this thing I saw! How can I describe it? A monstrous tripod, higher than many houses, striding over the young pine trees, and smashing them aside in it career; a walking engine of glittering metal, striding now across the heather; articulate (jointed) ropes of steel dangling from it, and the clattering tumult of its passage mingling with the riot of the thunder. A flash and it came out vividly, heeling over one way with two feet in the air, to vanish and reappear almost instantly as it seemed, with the next flash, a hundred yards nearer. Can you imagine a milking stool tilted and bowled violently along the ground? That was the impression those instant flashes gave. But instead of a milking stool imagine it a great body of machinery on a tripod stand. It was…”

ZEUS FLASH: TO ALL COMMANDS: MARTIANS NOW COMMAND THE ENGLISH CHANNEL AND NORTH SEA EAST OF ENGLAND. MEDITERRANEAN SEA COMPLETELY SURROWNDED BY MARTIAN GROUND FORCES. WESTERN EUROPE GROUND COMMAND NOW AT DELTA 64.

THE NORTH

As the Martians continued their efforts to take ground and bypass well defended cities Committee and National military forces continued to take advantage of limited Martian air operations. For the most part we controlled the air over much of the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. We also controlled much of the ocean’s surface. We were able to move well enough in the air over most northern land masses, despite the clogged atmosphere, even though much of the area had been overrun by Martians. Using this capability Committee and national air forces began dropping much needed supplies to groups of stay-behind forces now linking up with remnants of cut-off regular combat units in substantial behind the lines guerrilla operations. For the most part communication with these groups would prove spotty and usually by flash message only. As time went on these units became better organized into full combat teams and would prove to be some of the most effective fighting forces in the War.

These rear area operations were most effective in occupied Russia, the United States and north-west Europe. Many of these behind the lines efforts focused on destroying supply depots and rescuing humans from Martian concentration camps of which there were many. Killing any Martian was naturally high on the target list as small well-trained sniper teams were beginning to have some effect. If they could locate Martian As which appeared to be in leadership positions that would be their primary target of opportunity with any Martian A next on the target list. Tango sniper teams would prove to be quite good at this particular work – and they were keeping score!

Due to the success of these unconventional military operations it was not long before the Martians were forced to withdraw units of Martian As normally deployed in front line positions to rear area security and seek-and-destroy missions. Once again the Martians had been forced to change their tactics. These actions showed they were ill prepared to deal with such determined rear area military attacks. It was clear to our leadership we needed to keep up this pressure and the only way to sustain this effort was to maintain a constant supply of food, medical supplies and ammunition to these small units by air. We would soon be dropping additional combat troops as well as much needed supplies to re-enforce these groups as well as into populated areas that had been cut off but were still fighting.

Even with Committee and National Air Forces controlling much of the darkened skies over Europe and Asia several Martian Flying Machines did come up at times to engage our fighters in dog-fights as well as attacking our bombers and cargo aircraft. The Martians were running out of air resources as our air losses were matching theirs. Several wings of Phoenix IIs off of carriers were now exclusively on the hunt for Martian Flying Machines in an effort to clear the skies of enemy fighters.

The Martians were not the only ones having problems keeping combat aircraft in the skies. As they were running out of operational flying machines we were running out of usable replacement engines. The massive amounts of debris still being pumped into the atmosphere, including vast amounts of volcanic glass, was playing hell on our jet engines. Dozens of aircraft were falling out of the sky each day as their engines seized up and failed. Aircraft which were able to make it back to their bases were as often as not needing their engines replaced. There were simply not enough ground crews to keep up with the work even though we had recruited hundreds of civilians who had worked on jet engines for commercial airlines before the war. We were still able to produce enough engines to replace much of our losses and we had stockpiled thousands of them before the war but getting them into the aircraft was becoming a race for time and we had little of that commodity remaining.

Berlin, Germany:

Burst report by German government to Committee Headquarters London: MARTIANS HAVE ENDED ATTEMPTS TO ENTER AND CAPTURE CITY. COMPLETELY CUT OFF. LIGHT AIR ATTACKS CONTINUE WITH BLACK SMOKE AND HEAT RAYS. IN GREAT NEED OF RESUPPLY.

Massed bomber attacks out of air bases across the United States were once again pounding Martian front line forces across a wide front on both northern and southern lines of advance. Literally thousands of heavy bombers supported by several wings of Phoenix IIs, Thunder Jets and other combat aircraft were keeping up the pressure causing many sections along the Martian front to halt. More often than not the bombers did not come under air attack even though ground based Heat-Rays continued to take their toll. Most of the time the casualties among air crews during these attacks were light to moderate. At several areas along the front lines the Martians had been halted but had not yet been turned back.

During the First Martian War very few Martian combat units were able to fight their way to the vast grasslands of North America, Russia and China – they had simply run out of time. This time however, with stronger forces and no bacteria to prematurely end their efforts vast grasslands of Russia and China were now under Martian occupation as well as vast areas of Canada. The most productive food producing areas of the United States had yet to be taken but the enemy was doing its best to alleviate that problem.

OPTIMISTICHEKAYA CAVE UKRAINE

Upon discovering the 89 mile long Optimistichekaya Cave system in Ukraine it was quickly decided to work this massive natural underground system into a usable military command and control center as well as an underground refuge for a large civilian population in time of war. For nearly two weeks of relentless Martian attacks across our planet this facility was unknown to the Martians. On the 14^th day it was discovered. It was the first large natural underground cave system being used to house and protect humans to be discovered and it was soon under determined Martian attack.

The cave had been divided into twenty segments averaging four miles each. At each ‘divide’ massive concrete and steel barriers had been constructed into the cave closing off one section from the others. The system had 40 new man-made entrance points which had been tunneled out and completely camouflaged. When the Martians attacked two of these entrances they had no idea how vast this cave ‘city’ was nor did they suspect how heavily defended it would be.

They had used standard ground Heat-Rays to blast their way into the cave entrances and small Walkers backed by ground troops to attack the interior and were immediately counter-attacked by rockets and machine-gun fire held in the hands of some very determined Ukrainian fighters. The fighting would be nearly constant hand-to-hand in tight quarters for several days along miles of this complex. This underground fight would become one of the bloodiest continuous battles of the war. In the end, despite great loss of life, the Martians were never able to take the entire cave end-to-end.

Although numerous smaller underground cave facilities were eventually discovered and attacked mostly by rear area Martian patrols no other large natural cave was ever found by the Martians. At least to some degree the Committee had succeeded in keeping our promise of hiding large groups of people from the bloody Martians. Millions would be saved in these natural underground caves which when one thinks about it had been provided by the Earth itself!

THE MARTIAN SOUTH

Despite the loss of most southern land masses, Committee and national air and naval operations continued. These forces had to hold out as long as they could. At several points where Martian forces were concentrated air attacks were undertaken most notably in and around Sydney where Committee forces continued to hold on to ¼ of the underground facility, and around Burketown where evacuations of civilians continued. Despite heavy attacks by Martian ground forces the combined Committee and Australian armies could not be dislodged and were holding on supported by naval bombardments and massed bomber attacks being flown out of Auckland, New Zealand and off nearby carriers.

Auckland was now receiving thousands of refugees and military personnel from several occupied nations who had escaped from their overrun countries. It had become a southern military staging area. Plans were underway to land on the southern island of New Zealand for a major counter attack to retake the island using many of these new forces along with established Committee and New Zealand combat units.

At the same time privately owned cargo ships which had been caught in the open ocean were being directed to sail to northern New Zealand if possible. Many of these ships were transporting desperately needed supplies which could be used to support the suddenly increased population. The Fiji and Gilbert Islands were also becoming destinations for many of these ships which had been stranded in the South Pacific at the start of the war. With 10,000 Pacific islands there were plenty of hiding places. Committee warships were on the way to both areas in order to re-direct these ships with military escorts to locations where these supplies were most needed.

As the African evacuations continued from Santo Antonio do Zaire refugees who had somehow made it to the coast were reporting massive death tolls they had witnessed due to Martian attacks, many from deadly Black Smoke and Heat-Rays. From destroyed cities and villages survivors spoke of Martian Heat-Rays sweeping avenues and charring thousands of people at a time trying to flee certain death. People were being crushed under their fast moving machines with a few survivors being taken for food as they continued to march. This was well organized murder on a vast scale. Those not taken for food or trapped in concentration camps for later ‘feeds’ were simply massacred on the spot by the hundreds of thousands. Africa was being de-populated at an alarming rate! As with other areas around the planet concentration camps had been set up throughout occupied Africa guarded by Martian Bs and ‘Martian humans’. Several of these camps had been over flown by Psyop forces which had dropped leaflets calling on the ‘Martian humans’ to “turn on your brutal Martian masters and return to humanity by releasing your captures and fighting against the Martian invaders.” In a very few cases the guards did indeed turn on the Martians but much more often they remained loyal to the Martians. Perhaps not unexpectedly, considering their experiences their conversion had been total. They were Martian!

It would be the concentration camp near Walvis Bay, South West Africa where Tango forces and Committee Marines landed on this day in a rescue operation which liberated over 3000 human captives. During this operation, supported by five battleships firing salvo after salvo and heavy air cover, our forces engaged and killed well over 2000 Martians, mostly Bs, many hybrids and at least 100 ‘Martian humans’. Twenty-four ‘Martian humans’ were taken alive and brought out with those who had been rescued. Massive piles of burnt bodies numbered in the thousands. The operation, conducted under terrible weather conditions, was very successful as the Martians did not appear to be prepared for any type of military defense of the camp. In addition the raid ‘bagged’ two Martian As who were also transported. All those rescued were soon on their way by escorted surface ships to St. Helena. The prisoners were on their way by submarine to our Sea Cave Facility B6 at Sierra Leone which had thus far escaped notice by our Martian enemies who controlled the area entire around the facility.

COUNTER ATTACKS

In several areas across the Martian South including Australia, South America, Asia and Africa military units from overrun countries were pulling together what they had to counter-attack enemy forces whenever the opportunity presented itself. Many of these attacks took advantage of our superior forces in the air and at sea. But none of these counter attacks were as strong or as well organized as the four point attack on the southern New Zealand Island quickly formulated and conducted by combined New Zealand, Australian and Committee forces. For the first time in the war we were able to take back lost territory.

American supplied Committee forces counter attack

Sailing out of Wellington, Hawke Bay and Manukau Harbour at Auckland late in the day, hundreds of landing craft and well over 300 combat ships including four full aircraft carrier task forces began landing over 40,000 troops on the southern island of New Zealand at Christchurch, Clarence River, Cloudy Bay and Tasman Bay. At the point of the operation transport ships simply sailed directly onto the beaches establishing a very fast landing force. In addition every available civilian coastal ship of any size (some 600 of them) was pressed into service as part of the invasion forces. Supported by massed air to ground assaults and sustained heavy bomber attacks the light Martian forces were pushed back from the beachheads within six hours with only moderate losses. Enemy counter attacks were soon destroyed. Combined air power matched by intense fire from off shore batteries devastated Martian forces which were simply unprepared to deal with such a massed assault. It was clear they had dismissed any possibility of this type of attack. Within 48 hours all four of these landing bridgeheads were linked up, re-enforced and moving west and south.

As these operations were being conducted a second strong landing force made their way to the Gulf of Carpentary and Burketown to re-enforce that still hotly contested area and begin to push back strong Martian forces which had been held at bay at Burketown by several reformed Committee and Australian armies. Once again strong off shore batteries and strong air forces pounded the Martians forcing them to pull back from their front line positions.

Out of South America scattered radio and Ham reports indicated that several national combat units severely disrupted due to intense fighting had re-formed into Martian hunter teams. Survivors of several mostly destroyed Committee infantry and armor units had also combined with these new teams. These teams had begun operating out of the Amazon jungle attacking Martian units along the Negro and Amazon Rivers. Their only operational plans were to live off the jungle and kill as many Martians as they could find. Taking and holding territory was not an objective. For the rest of the war only spotty reports from those units would be heard. For the most part they had “gone off the radio grid” and were on their own. Some would end up so deep in the jungle it would be years before they could be contacted.

It would be in the Amazon Jungle where our forces would make contact with individual Martian Hunter As using the cover of the jungle as their private human hunting ground for sport. Tango teams would soon be on the hunt for these Martians and these teams, trained in that jungle, would prove to be more than a match for these Martian Hunter As. Their work would cause most Martians to fear the jungle.

At the same time strong Committee forces began landing on the east coast of South America near Cayenne in French Guiana to strengthen local military units and aid in re-organizing local combat units still capable of combat operations. As in other areas these re-enforcements were strongly supported by air and off shore combat forces. Naval guns opened up on enemy positions near the shore with ferocity. And again these landings had been successful in pushing Martian forces back. These were not by any means decisive operations in the grand scheme of things, but they were critical in demonstrating we could still defeat Martians as long as we continued to fight no matter what the cost may be. As usual the costs were high.

RADAR

After two weeks of war our deep tracking radar capabilities had become spotty at best. Most operational combat units still had local radar systems mounted on trucks and were still able to combine them with other units but many of our large powerful out-looking radars we had counted on to keep us informed of Martian orbital capabilities had been knocked out by Martian air attacks. Nevertheless, those few operational stations were indicating there were possibly fewer than thirty Martian craft in orbit around the Earth – all in polar orbits. If this was true it meant most of the Martian combat forces designated to invade the Earth were already deployed with few remaining forces available to re-enforce those units presently engaging Earth forces.

With this information we finally had a reasonable understanding of the total Martian combat capabilities and force structure. As much as we could understand by their continued slowing ground operations the Martians were spread thin about as far as they could be and still engage in offensive operations. They could however, no longer advance on all fronts. They would need to pick their attack avenues with care. We would need to pick ours with great care and hit them as hard as we could at their most vulnerable points even though we would still lose a great deal in the process. This had become a war of attrition.

The Earth still had greater numbers by far despite the loss of hundreds of millions of people but the very destructive weapons of war brought to Earth by the Martians were still able to exact a terrible toll on our people. We had the numbers but they held the more powerful weapons, as well as effective control over more than half the planet including vast areas of land. The full measure of this war had not yet been taken. There was much more to lose even if victory should be ours, and that was by no means a certainty. In point of fact we were still losing on most fronts and that was likely to continue for some time.

In all the confusion one report came in which seemed odd even considering the situation we found ourselves in battling the Martians all across the planet. Over the past several days military and civilian spotters in several areas had reported unidentified flying objects not of Martian origin over flying active front lines. Our limited radars had also tracked several of these rather large craft in Earth orbit. These unidentified craft seemed to be doing nothing more than observing the war. These ‘others’ seemed to be interested in having a front row seat. They had not hindered Martian war efforts nor had they aided the Martians in any way – they were just there! All we could do was track them as best we could with our degraded radars and file sighting reports as they came in. What their true objective was – if any – was still a mystery.

Martian primary attacks and occupied territories – 15 September 1938

EARTH’S LAST ATOMIC BOMB

In Lower-New York City the third and final atomic bomb had been assembled and was now ready to be loaded on a specially modified Phoenix IIA identical to the aircraft which had delivered the atomic weapon to the Martian base at Antarctica. Members of the original Tunguska West team had made their way to our headquarters and the weapon they had developed was now ready to use. Once again a Martian Command Center would be the target. We had bombed the facility on several occasions but only once before on a massive scale. Now for the second time Giza would be bombed with the intention of destroying the entire facility. This time the attack must succeed. Three Phoenix IIAs were designated to carry and escort the weapon to the Bermuda Islands where the aircraft would re-fuel for the flight across the Atlantic. The only real cover they would enjoy was the terrible weather blanketing the ocean and the anti-radar coatings on their craft.

[END PART 70]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[NEXT WEEK: PART 71: THE GROUND WAR CONTINUES AS A NEW MARTIAN FLEET EMERGES.]

[PART 69]

DAY TWELVE: 13 September 1938

As the Giza attack force stood by waiting for status reports on the polar bombing groups, intelligence reports continued to flood into Committee offices detailing Martian ground operations and limited air attacks around the world.

These reports included information on continuing bad weather conditions most notable on this day across the plains of North America reporting on at least 400 destructive tornados touching down along a weather front from Forth Worth to Memphis. Cyclones continued to pound India from Mangalore to Madras; the entire area now under Martian control. One particularly strong cyclone was beginning to hit the Arabian Peninsula with winds up to 160 miles per hour with devastating rains. The few intelligence reports coming from that region indicated even the Martians were having a good deal of trouble operating under those conditions. Most of Western Europe was being hit by snow storms dumping upwards of 15 to 20 feet in many areas. Across Eastern Europe into Mongolia and China snow was even heavier driven by winds of 60 to 70 miles per hour in many places.

Science stations were also picking up movements on several fault lines along a north/south line near the central Atlantic sea floor as well as several large aftershocks on the other side of the world off the coast of Japan and the Mariana Islands. Several powerful quakes had also hit the west coast of California and Chile.

SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE

In the south the Martians were consolidating their ground war efforts at several locations. Forces already engaged in areas where the fighting had ended or vastly weakened were re-routed to re-enforce active areas. In Africa their forces in control of the middle of the continent had linked up with their ground units which had invaded southern Africa. They now occupied over 2/3rds of Africa. Martian forces which had landed near Morocco were within 50 miles of Martian units which had landed at Giza and were expected to link up at Tripoli within 12 hours. The Martians now controlled the southern half of India holding a line from Bhavnagar on the west to Calcutta on the east. Ceylon was now in Martian ‘hands’ and our base at Colombo had been evacuated and destroyed in order to keep it out of Martian control.

In South America Martian ground forces had linked up at Lima in Peru and now occupied the entire west coast of South America. La Paz and Sucre are under heavy ground attack and was expected to fall at any moment. In Central America enemy forces have fought north and south linking up at what is left of Panama City. Since the link up in Panama nothing has been heard from our Committee center in Panama City. It is feared lost.

All of the southern island of New Zealand was now under Martian occupation as is 80% of Australia. Heavy fighting continues by re-combined Australian units along a line from Halls Creek to Burketown in the north. We expect to lose most of Australia within 48 hours. Sydney and Brisbane continue to fight off Martian assaults and have not been completely overrun. Reinforcements are being brought into Sydney via the underground port still in Committee hands. The fighters desperately holding on in Brisbane are being supplied by air flown in from carriers off shore. Both cities continue to be supported by naval units off shore operating in very rough seas.

Committee forces prepare to advance in New Zealand

Along a line between the north and south islands of New Zealand, 35 Australian and New Zealand warships including two carrier groups have been formed as a blocking force against expected Martian landings aimed at northern New Zealand. Warships are also pounding Martian positions at Nelson, Hokitika, West of Kingston, Dunedin, Timara and Christchurch. Martian casualties are reported as heavy and they had as yet made no attempt to invade the northern island. Air attacks by Martian Flying Machines have had some effect on the combined fleet but as of this time casualties have been relatively light. The capital at Wellington was attacked by several flying machines dropping Black Smoke and mid-level Heat-Ray attacks which started thousands of fires but most of the damage was quickly contained.

Committee and combined Australia/New Zealand forces land reinforcements at the northern coast of New Zealand

All of Borneo and Indonesia were now under Martian occupation as the Martians continued to push north. The southern islands of the Philippines had also been lost to the Martians, even as submarines landed marine raider units continuing to engage Martian rear units.

NORTHERN HEMISPHERE

In the north despite continued low levels of Martian air cover their ground forces continued to advance. The enemy had pushed north across China into the Soviet Union along a line from Vanavara, Olekminsk, Khandyga, Atka, Kamenskoye to Anadyr in the east. In Canada the Martians had fought along the west coast north to Sitka and Juneau; in Central Canada to the Great Slave Lake and along Hudson Bay to Eskimo Point. In the east, Ottawa and Montreal were surrounded and cut off as fighting continues. Toronto had been overrun and fighting had begun in Windsor across the river from Detroit, Michigan. Martian advance elements had crossed into the United States at Cleveland, Buffalo and Bangor. Quebec on the St. Lawrence River was bracing for attack.

In Ireland Irish and Committee forces were fighting along two fronts from Belfast in the north and Dublin in the south. In England Martian forces have stalled on a line from Cardiff to the north and north east of New London where heavy fighting was underway. Scottish units had joined with Welsh infantry in support of Commonwealth and Committee units west of Cardiff but were being slowly pushed back.

On the continent of Western Europe Martian ground forces supported by a few dozen flying machines were moving west from Amsterdam attacking European armies on a line from just north of Paris to Bonn, Germany on to Berlin and east to Vilnius in White Russia. Additional Martian forces were now occupying an area around 1000 miles wide roughly centered on Moscow. As these forces began to move heavy fighting was reported in Kharkov northwest of Stalingrad. Stalin had ordered Martian advances stopped at all costs. It had been 12 hours since Moscow had made contact with London. No wireless traffic was getting through and the cables were not operational.

Across the Mediterranean Sea Martian forces moved north from Africa into Spain, Portugal, Sicily, Italy, Greece and southern Turkey. All of these new fronts counter-attacked by national forces were losing ground. Naples, Seville and Athens had already fallen while Lisbon was reporting heavy fighting in and around the city. Nevertheless, strong national and Committee naval forces were pounding Martian positions along the western coast of Italy around Naples as well as in strong support south and east of Lisbon. A score of ships were lost in the engagement. Generally Martian air cover in the Mediterranean area was limited but when used was still very effective especially when dropping Black Smoke in Sicily and southern Italy.

Committee and national air forces mostly in the northern hemisphere were having good results on not only front line Martian units but several attacks had been successfully made on rear area supply points. These efforts were clearly slowing the enemy advances but had not stopped their attacks on most front lines. Our air forces were taking advantage of limited Martian air activity along as many fronts as possible but with so many areas under strong ground attack our air resources were stretched to the limit. Clearly this war would be won or lost on the ground.

MARTIAN COMMAND BASE ATTACKS

(GIZA)

When word was received that both polar attack groups had passed 80 degrees north and south the Giza attack group took off. A few days earlier as this combined operation was being planned the Mediterranean Sea was mostly under human control. Now as we launched our forces to bomb Giza the area had become a Martian Sea. These air forces would be flying over Martian controlled territory for much of the flight.

From air bases north of Rome and just east of Belgrade heavy Whitehead B4 jet bombers, Phoenix IIs and Thunder Jets took off for the Giza complex. Just forming up would cause difficulties as continuing bad weather made contact in the air and close formation flying a very dangerous business. The western group out of Rome flew a low level path which took them over waters between north Africa and Sicily, both Martian occupied, and on into the Mediterranean. The eastern group flew south over the Aegean Sea intending to meet up with the western group at a point just south of Crete. In total the bomb groups numbered 310 heavy bombers, 118 Phoenix IIs and 150 Thunder Jets. They encountered high winds, a heavy atmosphere and 28 Martian Flying Machines which had flown up from Giza to meet them.

Just after the link-up off Crete the lead Phoenix IIs came into contact with the Martian machines. If possible none of the Thunder Jets were to dogfight with the Martians, rather they had been ordered to bypass the Martians and fly directly to Giza and take out as many of the ground based Heat-Rays as they could before the bombers arrived. They were to leave the dog-fighting to the superior and better armed Phoenix IIs. The Martian flyers seemed to be agreeing with these plans as the Thunder Jets flew on to the target.

Seemingly not wanting to engage the Earth fighters the Martians did their best to Heat-Ray their way past the Phoenix IIs and on into the three levels of Whitehead B4 bombers which had formed into two bombing streams at high, medium and low levels. Gunners onboard the bombers were making that work difficult. Nevertheless, in only a few minutes the Martians had managed to down 22 bombers and six Phoenix IIs. The fighting continued much of the way to the target until the Martians suddenly broke off their attacks on the bomber formations staying with the Phoenix IIs which cost the Martians ten more of their machines.

As the fighting continued off the coast of North Africa the four Committee submarines which had been standing by just off shore surfaced and launched all eight of their unmanned 2000 lb drones. Seven out of eight headed directly towards their pre-programmed target at Giza. One of the drones seemed to have a mind of its own as it headed out to sea almost due north. Even with that problem adding to the attacking Martian machines the bombing mission on Giza was going as planned.

(ARCTIC)

Almost as soon as the Arctic teams lifted off on their northern flight both groups had run into problems. Even though both teams were being led in by specially designed and equipped Phoenix IIA Electronic Guide aircraft, weather conditions and faulty equipment were making it very difficult for the trailing groups to keep an electronic lock on the leaders. Massive electrical discharges were lighting up the entire area. The Thunder Jet pilots were especially having a difficult time in the bad weather. Many of them would lock on to the signal for a while then the signal would drop off entirely. In the end many of them would fly north using last known positions of the led craft and a ‘gut feeling’ where they were. Because of these problems nearly half of the Thunder Jets never arrived at the North Pole. Many of them simply turned back when they could not get their bearings to the pole and at least two dozen never made it back to their bases running out of fuel and becoming lost somewhere over the Arctic ice.

Those craft able to make it all the way in were surprised by two events they would never have suspected. First was the very light coverage by Martian Flying Machines which numbered no greater than 40. Second was the magnificent aurora displays over the polar ice which had lit up the entire area. In general aurora displays were not unusual but these were so extensive and so bright they lit up the polar ice to a much greater extent than ever before. The Martian Command Center we were hoping to destroy under appalling lighting and weather conditions was so well lit up by the display it almost looked like daylight. Nothing was hidden from view. The bomb group could clearly see hundreds of Martian Walkers lined up in neat rows, at least 50 Martian Flying Machines on the ice most likely being repaired and a great many structures of all kinds mostly round. The ground based Martian Heat-Rays opened up on the flight. Due to the difficulty of arriving on target the original plans had to be thrown out the window. None of the Thunder Jets slated to attack the Heat-Rays first had arrived on target. The first group to arrive was the bombers with their Phoenix II escorts which left open the possibility of being shot down by ground based Heat-Rays or by counter attacking Martian Flying Machines. Flight commanders soon ordered half of the Phoenix IIs to attack the Heat-Rays as the bombers circled once around to line up on the target. The remaining Phoenix IIs were ordered to engage the Martian Flying Machines. The toughest job now was keeping the Martians away from the bombers as they formed up for their run at the pole. This would prove costly as 21 bombers were shot down by the Martians who themselves lost eight of their machines even before our forces could line up on the base. Within minutes the Phoenix IIs had destroyed 28 of the Heat-Rays opening up a small path for the bombers. From high and medium level two bomber streams of at least 180 aircraft each lined up to drop their deadly high-explosive payloads. Better than half of the bombs found their way to the base as row after row exploded on the ice field upon which the base had been built. Ten more bombers never made it away after dropping their loads – hit by deadly ground based Heat-Rays. But their effect on the base had been dramatic.

After the first two bomber groups finished their runs, while the air battle over the Arctic ice continued three groups of Thunder Jets finally arrived at the pole. All three groups numbering some 90 jets coming in from two directions made bee lines for the remaining Heat-Rays hitting several on their first runs. By this time better than half of the deadly Heat-Rays had been knocked out. Several had been destroyed by the bombers themselves.

As the final wave of bombers lined up to drop their seismic devices the Martians could count only 12 flying machines still in the fight and they were far too busy dealing with the Phoenix IIs to focus on the bombers. As the bombers were about to drop their loads a third group of Thunder Jets came roaring out of the clouds heading directly for the eastern side of the Martian facility where most of the remaining functional Heat-Rays were located. In what became an unplanned yet simultaneous attack by Thunder Jets and Whitehead B4 bombers most of the 500 seismic devices hit their targets in and around the base. Pulling out the pilots could see the ice breaking up with massive Martian structures dropping through the ice into the Arctic Sea.

With the bomb runs completed and at least 2/3rds of the base breaking up and sinking the flight leader ordered the bombers to turn south and head for home. The Thunder Jets were ordered to escort the bombers as closely as they could. The Phoenix IIs were ordered to continue attacking what remained of the base and sink every remaining structure they could find. As the bombers and Thunder Jets flew south only four Martian Flying Machines were still engaging the Phoenix IIs. All four would soon join their base at the bottom of the Arctic Sea!

Photos taken by one of the last Phoenix IIs to leave the area would show 95% of the facility had been destroyed. The photos did not indicate any of the thousands of humans held hostage had survived the attack. The temporary structures which had held these people had disappeared. This had been a very costly success and no one cheered the victory even though we had been able to destroy a great deal of Martian war making capacity along with one of their primary command facilities. As always the cost for humanity was very high. (Only later did we discover that incredibly 18 people had survived. Their journey of survival as they walked south became the stuff of legend.)

(ANTARCTICA)

The decoy Phoenix IIs separated from the bomb group over the Weddell Sea just off the coast of Antarctica. From thus point on the five radar absorbing Phoenix IIAs were on their own flying due south to the pole across Gould Bay. From there the bomb group now flying very close to the shifting ice flows flew past Berkner Island which was itself almost completely ice covered. There was very little exposed rock. It was the team’s first back-up geographic ground observation point to be used for navigation if for whatever reason their onboard instruments had failed. They were right on course.

In the lead were three Phoenix IIAs flying a diamond formation with two other aircraft following behind including the atomic bomb armed aircraft. It was cold and clear with not a Martian in sight. As the flight made their way towards Neptune and Forrestal Mountain ranges they picked up a burst radio report from the decoy team indicating that they had been jumped by 12 Martian Flying Machines at the eastern edge of the Weddell Sea. A dogfight was on going. The decoy mission had apparently worked. The bomb team continued south with absolute radio silence. So far so good.

The flight was soon flying “map of the Earth” between the Neptune and Forrestal Mountain ranges when one of the lead aircraft began having control problems. It was not long before the pilot indicated he would not be able to make it to the South Pole. As he pulled away to head north be began to trail smoke. No radio contact was made as the four remaining craft continued on course. No further contact with that aircraft was ever made and it probably crashed somewhere on the Antarctic ice fields.

It was not long before the flight passed Mt. Hawkes, another of their geographic ground points. Still no sighting of any Martian craft and the area they were flying over was still very clear. It was now a straight shot to the target at the pole on the Antarctic Plateau estimated to be situated at an altitude of 9300 feet above sea level much of that was thousands of feet of ancient ice. They would slowly make that climb keeping one eye on the sky and another on the ice sheet below.

(GIZA)

The bomber crews could see the unmanned bombs flying below them as they lined up on their bomb run. They could also see squadrons of Thunder Jets coming in behind the bombs for their attack on the ground based Heat-Rays. As Tesla had promised each one of the ‘successful’ 2000 lb flying bombs landed on target with one actually hitting The Great Pyramid at about mid level. It would now sport a rather nice hole on its northern facing side but not for long. This would not be the last attack on the pyramids as each one had their tops adorned with Martian Heat-Rays and these deadly machines needed to be destroyed.

The remaining 288 bombers lined up in three streams as they crossed the IP for their run at the Giza Plateau. Although the wind storms which had plagued the area for days continued to hit the plateau the Martian base could clearly be seen by the pilots.

As the bomb bay doors opened and the final line up began the Martians played their trump card. Flying in a line of at least 30 each from both the east and west Martian Flying Machines came at the bomber streams like a pack of hungry wolves with their Heat-Rays pulsing as fast as they could. The bomber crews did not know what hit them as they flew into the line of Martian machines.

The Martians had engaged the Phoenix IIs off the North African coast to keep them busy as Martians prepared to do whatever it took to take out our bombers. The Martians had not taken our bait – it was we who had fallen into their well timed trap!

In less than 60 seconds like a giant vice closing in from two sides the Martians shot down over 160 bombers nearly completely disrupting the attack. In the confusion all around them only 20 bombers made it to the heavily defended target inflicting very little damage. Several more bombers were lost to ground based Heat-Rays. As the bomber formations broke up and the surviving aircraft headed north the Phoenix IIs and Thunder Jets engaged as many of the enemy aircraft as possible doing their best to protect the surviving bombers. In the end only 34 of the original 310 bombers would return to their bases. 42 Phoenix IIs and 74 Thunder Jets were also lost. The mission to destroy the enemies’ command base at Giza had been a complete failure.

Despite this major loss we all knew there was no choice but to plan our next all out attack on Giza as soon as possible.

(ANTARCTICA)

As the flight crossed the Trans Antarctic Mountain Range dropping towards the Antarctic Plateau the weather suddenly turned treacherous. A cold fast moving fog seemed to cover the entire area as far as the pilots could see. The fog looked natural – whatever that meant at the time – but we could not rule out a possible Martian induced protective fog. There was nothing to look at and no indications of either man or Martian activity. This was truly a whiteout condition.

Above the men could see the Aurora Austrialus; below only ice with no geographic features on which to focus. Only their flight instruments told them they were on course for the pole. With these conditions they could not risk flying so close to the surface as there were known mountain ranges thousands of feet high and most of the area had never been mapped at least by the hand of man. They had no choice but to gain altitude and hope their specially built radar absorbing craft were not spotted by any Martian patrols. As it turned out it was not the Martians that they needed to be concerned with.

In formation with two craft in the lead and two following including the Phoenix IIA with the bomb, the flight was no more than 30 minutes from their target when another of the lead planes began to pull back from its lead position. Closing on the two trailing aircraft the pilot of the plane losing speed flew alongside the two trailing planes indicating he had some type of problem and needed to pull back. He would begin to trail the group. That left one plane as lead, the bomb group following with the fourth craft trailing.

Seconds later the seemingly impossible happened. The pilot of the trailing aircraft suddenly banked behind the atomic bomb craft and began firing at it with rockets! For whatever reason H-George Davis, the pilot of the atomic bomb carrying Phoenix IIA, had sensed something was wrong when the trailing plane moved directly behind his craft. Just before he was fired on he pulled his craft up and to the left in a tight roll as the rockets flew past his right wing. Within seconds his protective wing man was in a life and death dogfight with one of their own – a renegade.

The renegade pilot was attempting to stay with Davis firing his machine-guns as Davis continued his roll. His wing man trailed behind firing his guns at the renegade. None of the pilots could understand why one of their own was trying to shoot down the atomic bomb plane. All they knew was they had to knock it out of the sky before the renegade took out Davis. The flight leader radioed Davis to break south and attempt to head towards the target as he and the wing man fought the renegade. Turning hard and pushing his craft for all it had Davis headed south. Within seconds rockets fired by the flight leader found one of the engines of the renegade Phoenix IIA as he attempted to follow Davis in his roll reversal and exploded ending his attack on the hybrid pilot. The renegade pilot had said nothing to explain why he had attacked.

After the fight the group formed up into a line formation with the commander’s Phoenix IIA leading the way with Davis in the middle and his wing man flying rear cover. One thing was now very clear. The Martians could not possibly have missed the fact they were on their way south. The renegade pilot had sent a high pitch radio signal just before he attacked Davis. With that signal he may as well sent an open invitation to the Martians. Within minutes the Martians would be accepting the invite.

Once again the flight was flying as close to the ground as they dare. They were however not on course heading directly for the South Pole. The flight leader had indicated he wanted the group to follow him close to the ground but away from the pole. Flying directly at the pole was what the Martians were probably prepared for. Without radio calls the team prepared to swing starboard expecting to miss their target by an estimated 50 miles. After passing by the entire flight would once again turn towards the pole and bomb their target from their new attack direction.

Before the turn however the Phoenix IIA piloted by the mission commander had one more trick up his sleeve. He went to 4000 feet alone for a little deception work. In his bomb bay were thousands of metal strips he would use as a decoy for the Martian radars to pick up. Tesla’s team had put together this “bomb package” which also included two small radios which were activated when dropped. Both radios would broadcast emergency reports of a downed aircraft. It was hoped the Martians would focus on the “bomb package” and not on the bomb group. After the drop he returned to the group and they headed towards their new attack turning point. They would not see the ten Martian Flying Machines which had been sent up from the polar base to intercept their original course. What they did see after the turn was the Martian South Pole Command Base directly in front of them. It looked almost exactly the same as the images which had been taken of the Arctic base only twice as large.

The base had three sides and the flight crews estimated it was at least ten miles on each side. Much more detailed than the northern center this base had at least 200 ground-based Heat-Rays on the sides in three rows each (not all of them were operational at the base), twin central towers and row after row of Walkers as well as a good deal of other equipment. It also sported two large deep space radio dishes in two of the corners. There were at least 100 very large round structures within the base which could house thousands of Martians. What looked like large supply containers were stacked along one side of the base. There was also no doubt this base held thousands of captive people in large circular pens much like the ones discovered at the North Pole. The Martians had planned to stay a very long time if this base was any indication.

Almost as soon as the pilots saw their target they spotted several flying machines rise up from the base and turn in their direction. Both sides now had visual contact with their enemy.

South Pole bomb group:

Burst report by atomic bomber to Committee Headquarters: NEARING TARGET. NO TIME TO GAIN ALTITUDE. WILL DETONATE ON CONTACT. LONG LIVE HUMANITY. DAVIS.

Davis knew he would not have enough time to gain proper altitude with Martian Flying Machines coming up fast to meet him as did the other pilots. The flight leader radioed his wing man to the front as they prepared to shoot their way past the Martians. Within seconds both were leading Davis in firing their Heat-Rays, rockets and machineguns. They were firing absolutely every weapon they had. Seconds later the wing man’s Phoenix IIA exploded sending shrapnel into Davis’s aircraft. With one engine out, Davis fired all of his rockets and engaged his Heat-Ray as he and his flight leader flew past the Martians who were turning hard to finish off the team. It would be too little too late as Davis nosed his Phoenix IIA down towards the high Antarctic ice field and detonated the atomic bomb still housed in his bomb bay 1000 feet over the central tower of the Martian base. In a fraction of a second the two Phoenix IIAs vanished along with two dozen Martian Flying Machines and a majority of the Martian South Pole Command Center.

Most of H-George Davis’s burst radio message was received by our New Zealand command group as well as two Committee submarines which had been positioned at points just north of the Antarctic to receive just such a message. Confirmation the attack had succeeded occurred when shock waves from the bomb were recorded at several southern locations.

The costs had been high but Earth forces had succeeded in destroying two of the three primary Martian command centers. These attacks did not end the Martian war but they did give the Martians pause. They would need to change their strategy if their invasion of Earth was to succeed. In a later ceremony Davis and his fellow pilot were honored with Committee Medals of Honor. At the same ceremony the new Prime Director officially removed the “H” from Davis’s name.

APOLLO FLASH: TO ALL COMMANDS: MARTIAN COMMAND CENTERS AT NORTH AND SOUTH POLES DESTROYED. GIZA REMAINS OPERATIONAL. ENEMY MARITINE OPERATIONS LIMITED. ENEMY AIR CAPABILITIES NOW SEVERLY LIMITED. SEEK AND DESTROY ANY AND ALL ENEMY AIR RESOURCES WITH STRENGTH. ENEMY GROUND OPERATIONS REMAIN STRONG BUT ARE SLOWING.

[END PART 69]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[NEXT WEEK: PART 70: A CALL FOR EARTH TO SURRENDER, WAR CONTINUES; INVASION MAPS 4 & 5.]

[PART 46]

More Amazing Discoveries in Egypt

July 1929

As the sands of Egypt continued to slowly reveal her ancient secrets more often than not we found ourselves confronted with the reality that man’s destiny on Earth had been greatly influenced and at times directed by beings not of this world, and as it would become apparent not always by the efforts of Martians alone. Nevertheless, it appeared that much of this off-world interference had indeed come from the hand, so to speak, of a Martian. We were to discover that the complex at Giza appeared to have been the central focus of their ancient work.

The Giza report delivered to the Committee in July of 1929 in the Mars Room easily held the attention of all who attended. It was of course a secret meeting as what we were to learn had much effect on what had been “known” of man’s history in general and Egypt’s very specifically. Only later would we release information to the general public and even then it was to be sanitized.

From newly discovered underground wall paintings, many showing hybrids in command positions, as well as translations from a small but very well preserved underground library under the Giza complex we learned much that would either change what we thought we knew about Egyptian history or answer some of the questions long discussed by scholars. One was how the Egyptians had built the pyramids of Giza.

The “sky people” had provided much technology to ancient peoples only to remove much of its evidence when they departed the Earth. Two of these secrets involved the ability to somehow soften the giant stones to shape and mold them to perfect shapes needed for construction of massive buildings and the ability to somehow levitate or make weightless in a small zone, these huge stones with what was called an “orange beam device from above.” Another advancement used alongside the molding process” was a large cutting and polishing wheel said to be some 25 feet high set into the stone holder from which it was spun and rolled forward to cut into the massive blocks. In fact, the wheel mounts (three of them) were found near the facility years earlier but their use could not be guessed at until we learned about the huge wheels set inside which must have looked like the world’s largest saw blade.

We also learned that in order to cut into these massive blocks the builders had lined the cutting wheels with diamonds! Even with these documents it would have been difficult to believe this story if it had not been for the discovery six months earlier of a seven foot rounded section of one of these cutting wheels. And yes, it was still embedded with some of the finest diamonds they had ever seen.

The team had also located what appeared to be some type of food production area under the facility. Upon close examination it was found that many of what looked like large stone vats had held some type of blue/green algae. How and why these people were growing blue/green algae was not known at this time. It is not suspected that the ancient Egyptians used this material so if anything it had something to do with the hybrids or the Martians themselves.

From the newly translated documents discovered a few years earlier we had learned for the first time that several Egyptian leaders, thousands of years ago, had actually been taken to Mars! Although the scrolls do not go into great detail they do relate that the “sky voyage to the god of Mars lasted a few months.” From what could be learned there was much work in the creation of hybrids both on Earth and when these ancient Egyptians were on Mars. The Martian hybridization program had been a two planet affair for many years.

MARTIAN TUNNELING MACHINES COME ON LINE

It had taken years, but we finally had all three abandoned Martian tunneling machines working (never used by the Martians on Earth) and I must say that these 500-ton rock-boring machines worked magnificently. After being disassembled, the Committee sent one each by cargo ship to New York City, London and Sydney and they were soon speeding along creating about one mile of tunnel per day – for each machine! With these new machines working, added to our smaller Earth built versions, the Committee now had high expectations that all of our primary underground projects would indeed be completed before the next expected major attack from Mars. (It was still thought to be possible around 1935.) In the areas where the large Martian machines were in operation we could now use some of the smaller machines to cut into the rock to produce the “buildings and offices” offset from the main tunnels.

We had made our plans to build underground not knowing if we would ever be able to eventually use these abandoned machines left by the Martians. Nevertheless, now that they were operational our work would progress much faster and if our estimates of Martian war plans were anywhere near accurate we would not only finish our underground work at these three primary locations, we fully expected to send all three of the machines to other important locations in the near future. These machines could now be added to our own many, but much smaller, tunneling machines which had been operating for years.

On 17 December 1929 we received a report from one of our Secret Intelligence Service operatives in Brazil of a strange power failure at their new Uberlandia power station. Five days earlier at around 3:15 a.m. the automatic override system suddenly disconnected the link and shut down power to both main power trunks. Within seconds a technical aid at a substation 50 miles to the south called to report that a large unidentified object had just flown over his station and all of his automatic safeguards had been disconnected. The unidentified object was heading for Uberlandia as the technician re-set the safety keys only to have them disconnected a second time almost at once. After the second disconnect the Uberlandia power station reported that all generated power systems were being drained of energy! Going outside several members of the power station staff were able to see the craft less than 100 feet from their building as a beam of bright light was “pulled from the power station before the craft took off towards the south.”

Committee investigators later surmised that the craft, identified as Martian, was somehow recharging some electrical storage system onboard their craft. Tesla and his team were notified and began to work on plans to “protect the power grid from Martian attacks.” That would turn out to be a rather tall order. We also had other more down to Earth questions to think about. Why did the Martian crew feel the need to drain energy from one of our power plants with all of their sophisticated technology on board their spacecraft? Were some of their systems failing or were they not nearly as advanced as we had been led to believe? This one went into the books as unexplained.

By the end of 1929 the American government, now leading the world in wireless, could count some 10 million households with simple radio sets. It was not nearly enough, but we had come a long way since 1922 when only 60,000 homes had primitive wireless sets so it was a very good start. The Committee needed to find a way to make ownership of radios as cheap and easy as possible and this needed to be a world-wide program not just in the fast recovering United States. The world needed radio and they needed it as fast as we could set up the stations to bring it to them. In order to expedite this effort the Committee set up a special group to fund new radio stations as well as local in country businesses to build and maintain small cheaply built radios. Keeping people informed was still near the top of our list of priorities worldwide. On a related note I recall that at about this time many individuals were building their own so-called “second generation” radio sets. These new “Tuned Radio Frequency” sets (TRF sets), were becoming quite popular, and if one was not disposed to built one’s own they were now readily available for purchase in most cities. With two tuning knobs and a reaction adjustment they had to be carefully set in order to receive a somewhat clear signal. I for one would wait for the next generation of radio before I put out any cash for a personal radio.

As 1929 came to a close Dr. Robert Goddard published for the general public his monograph titled: A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes. This work went well beyond placing payloads into Earth orbit and suggested that a well built multistage chemical rocket could in fact make it all the way to the moon. Wide attention was forthcoming. Once again we were informing the general public of progress we were making even though this work had been completed years earlier. No sense in giving our enemies on Mars any truly updated material. In fact, we wanted them to believe that we were progressing a lot slower than we actually were. We knew however, that we needed to show at least some progress – none would have seemed a bit suspicious.

What we did not announce was the test of a small ‘computing device’ which had been launched on one of Dr. Goddard’s rockets. This card-punch device was able to control the flight of the rocket even without the gyro controls which were turned off for ten seconds during the test. In rockets and control devices we were making some very good progress.

Empire State Building Construction

January 1930

With many of the below and above ground building programs well on their way a group of investors led by John J. Raskob and Pierre S. du Pont decided to build a signature building in the now semi-recovered Upper-New York City. This was being developed not only as an investment (of which the Committee had supplied some 30% of the original funds), but to demonstrate to the world that mankind had indeed moved on from the Martian and Great Earth Wars and were still quite capable of once again doing great things. This building was to be designed and built as the tallest man-made structure on Earth.

Searching for an appropriate building site, one which would not overlay any underground city L-streets or facilities, led general contractor The Starrett Brothers and Eken and architectural firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon to a decimated site on Fifth Avenue or at least what remained of Fifth Avenue in the heart of the old city. The entire block, originally the old family farm owned by John Thompson, had been occupied by the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel complex owned by Col. John Jacob Astor before the First Martian War, now completely destroyed. This had been a great loss for the city’s well-healed crowd as before the war a group known amongst themselves as The New York Four Hundred, essentially New York City’s social elite, had claimed the hotel as their unofficial headquarters and private playground. They were then called the “Waldorf Crowd.” The Empire team had found their building site.

Working at top speed chief architect on the project, William F. Lamb and his team completed the working drawings in only two weeks! On 21 January 1930, excavation began on the site at 34^th Street and Fifth Avenue. By 17 March which happened to be St. Patrick’s Day, construction began on the world’s tallest building. New York City newspapers took time to note that the Martians were not building any great new projects on their home planet as far as we could tell. (In truth we could tell very little at the time, and would later find that in fact the Martians were quite busy but it did make for great press.) They stressed the point that we were still progressing as the Martians seemed to have stagnated. They also took pleasure in reminding the public that despite the massive attack on Lower-New York City the year before New York City both above and below ground was not about to stop work on recovery and advancement.

During the 410 days the men of Upper-New York City took to build the world’s tallest structure some 3,400 workers could claim with a great deal of pride that they had worked on the project. Working alongside the New Yorkers were recent immigrants from the destruction of Europe and hundreds of ‘high iron’ workers mostly Mohawks from the Kahnawake Reservation near Montreal, Canada. (Montreal was still recovering, but for some reason the Martians had missed the reservation.) In all, considering the massive effort, it was truly amazing that ‘only’ five workmen would be killed during its construction. To speed up the construction large so-called ‘sub-assemblies’ were put together off-site and trucked to the building site to be included in the building as construction elevators hummed day and night. During the peak of work the teams were completing one floor every day! It was truly an astonishing rate. Only two years after its completion movie goers could gaze upon the new building in a movie featuring a large ape named King Kong as the huge beast made his last stand with his diminutive lady love.

It is interesting to remember that even while this work was being completed, work was to continue on the new Chrysler Building and 40 Wall Street projects. There was a lot of ‘high iron’ work going on at the time, which kept the economy of the still recovering new city booming.

On 31 May 1931, the Empire State Building was officially opened when United States President (and Committee Prince) Herbert Hoover pushed a button in the newly completed White House (below ground sections) which turned the lights on from his office in New Washington Center. The above ground White House building itself had been reconstructed soon after the First Martian War – rebuilt on the same site which had been mostly destroyed all accept the north face of the building. That wall had since been re-enforced and was used as the starting point for the reconstruction. From all appearances it was an absolute duplicate of the original structure due to hundreds of photos taken of the original being used as well as detailed plans of the original structure. What had taken so long to complete were the new underground sections of the new White House which covered nearly twice the area of the above ground structure to include two miles of tunnels which could be used to evacuate if the need should arise.

Once again “the people’s house” was open for business. Interestingly, that original north wall section had been painted in a slightly off-white color in order to separate it from the new construction. The people wanted to be reminded that not all of the original White House had fallen to the Martians. It is also noteworthy to learn that there are also two burn stains on that very same wall section left there from the time the British came to town and set the White House on fire.

When completed anyone in New York City, upper and lower, including the 20,000 people who by then called the Empire State Building their home or workplace, could tell you that their new feature building rose to a new record height of 1,453 feet and a little over 8-1/2 inches above the street level with 102 floors. The first building in the world with over 100 floors the new structure sported a series of radio (and later TV) antennas on top with a lightening rod at the pinnacle. Just below the pinnacle was constructed a docking portal for lighter than air ships.

All of these facts and figures were proudly discussed as New Yorkers continued to rebuild their city both above and below ground. What was not widely known and was in fact a state secret at the time was the rotating beacon light positioned at the 1,400 foot level. It was not the beacon light itself which held the secret, anyone with a pair of binoculars during the day or simply looked at the building at night could have seen it. No – the real secret was what would be built into the top of the building behind the beacons which were in fact built to cover the secret project. The Committee under the direction of Nicola Tesla had been developing a powerful Heat-Ray weapon back engineered from Martian Technology which would eventually sweep a full 360 degrees and fire its deadly ray some five miles to any target which happened to come its way. The weapon could also move up or down to fire almost 45 degrees out of level plane. If the Martians came back to Upper-New York the Empire State Building would be ready to deliver a very nasty greeting!

Before we had completed the work in New York City however, it would be the Martians who would deliver a surprise to us along the cold shores of a frozen lake in Canada, and at the same time we would pull a scientific wonder out of our back engineering work on their machines.

Another Martian Secret Discovered

“Spooky action at a distance”

Dr. Einstein

To say that it was a scientific shock would be a great understatement. It was in fact the overturning of physics on its head. Even though we had several earlier reports from not only hybrids and captured humans but from several Martian Bs themselves, we still found it difficult to believe that the Martians had discovered how to communicate over vast distances instantly. In other words faster, much faster than the speed of light (Ref: Martian Electronic Document 41L26, 41L27).

Even when we captured the new machine the Martian Brotherhood had been given to communicate with the ‘Guiding One,’ we still had trouble accepting that instantaneous communication over millions (and probably hundreds of billions) of miles of space was even possible. But damned if it didn’t turn out to be the exact truth. It had taken the recovery of a second machine from a crashed Command Martian Flying Machine that had been located in a dense jungle in Brazil which allowed our people to use these devices and discover their capabilities. The Martians were so advanced that they had discovered how to communicate with each other instantly even if one of them was sitting on Mars and the other was orbiting the Earth. Einstein would eventually call it “spooky action at a distance.” When Drs. Tesla and Einstein worked out a partial solution they called the Committee executive staff together to tell us the exciting news. Dr. Einstein who by this time had moved to Princeton University even as he maintained an office at the Committee spoke first.

“Gentlemen, I would have thought only a few weeks ago that any type of communication or for that matter any form of information transmitted in our four dimensional space-time could not be transmitted faster than the speed of light. We must now come to an understanding that as Newton’s laws of gravitation were overtaken at high energies and high masses with relativity so relativity has been overtaken by advanced quantum forces understood and displayed by the Martians. There can be no doubt that the Martians are capable of using instantaneous communication over extreme distances which may in fact have no limit. Dr. Tesla.”

“Thank you Professor Einstein. Gentlemen, let me begin by stating that without the help of Dr. Einstein and Dr. Bohr I would not be able to address this group today, for I would be no further along in this particular work had I not received the generous help and guidance of these two great thinkers. Having said that allow me to explain as best one may what we have discovered.”

“With the help of Martian Electronic Documents, two of these devices, and years of back-engineering work, we now have a fundamental grasp of how this ‘magic’ is worked. Imagine in your minds, if you would, a pair of atomic partials electronically linked very closely to each other. One of the partials spins left and its matched atomic partial spins right. Now imagine five such matched pairs of particles with one group spinning left and the other group spinning right. Now place all of the spin-left particles in a very cold electronic containment field in which all five spin-left particles are in separate zones and that they are monitored electronically. This monitoring was displayed as lights on or off and since all five individual particles are in spin-left configuration the indicators are all off, or if you will, showing ‘zero’.

“Now in your mind do the same for the spin-right particles and their indicators show all are on or indicating a ‘one’. (Spin-left is off and spin-right is on.) Now remove the first containment device now reading 0-0-0-0-0 to a distant location; perhaps a distant planet. The Martians understand two linked properties of these particle pair sets. First, they are still connected particle pairs in space and time as if they were still close to each other in some way that we do not as yet understand. Second, when you change the spin on one of the matched particle pairs the other matched particle pair instantly ‘flips’ its spin exactly opposite of its matched particle even though it is located at a great distance and has no direct contact with that particle – instantly!

“Now, in order to send instant information the Martians must change the spin of the particles in one of the devices, now reading 1-1-1-1-1 to effect the second device now reading 0-0-0-0-0. By using a simple binary code (1 or 0) the Martians, in order to send information, say the number 27, simply change the spin of the first particle (reading from right to left) to 0, the second to 0, the third is left unchanged as 1, the forth to 0, and the fifth to 0. It now reads 0-0-1-0-0. Instantly the device on the other planet will indicate 1-1-0-1-1. In binary code 11011 = 27! They would have in fact instantly sent, by some as yet unknown cosmic agency, five ‘bits’ of data which can be read as the number 27.

“The guiding quantum field somehow exerts an action-at-a-distance force by which the physical effect of the spin particle is transmitted instantaneously to great and possibly infinite distances. We do not know how or why this works. Dr. Einstein has come to referring to this as ‘spooky action at a distance.” This brought on some laughter from those gathered – including Dr. Einstein. Dr. Tesla continued. “The only hint as to how or why this type of system operates at such grand distances is a few lines taken from a partly translated Martian Electronic Document which refers to a ‘dark field of energy which overlays all of space and time which is undetectable, but consists of some 95% of all energy/matter. This imbedded universal dark energy/matter field has no individual time component and is therefore universal in nature, timeless and instantaneous in its responses.”

“Gentlemen, this is only a very simple example of five ‘bits’ but imagine if you will millions or even perhaps billions of these linked pairs held in a small tabletop device no larger than a toaster able to transmit not only numerical data, but voice communications as clear as you and I are speaking in this room or perhaps even instant images of exactly what is going on in this room by some type of visual device. With this very advanced technology the Martians are not only able to communicate instantly with each other no matter where they are located or how far away, they are able to fly un-Martianed aerial craft over any portion of the Earth without actually being on our planet! We believe that this is the control method they are using for a few of their small reconnaissance vehicles. The only problem with this type of control seems to be that this method, for whatever reason, is not being used with their larger craft. We have no explanation for this discrepancy, if in fact there is one. It is thought that perhaps the Martians have only a limited number of these advanced devices and they may be very difficult to construct. One thing however, is very clear. When they use these devices there is absolutely no method we can think of to intercept or listen in on any communication transmitted, if that is the proper term, by these devices. They represent the ultimate in communications security.”

Later study would show that the Martians needed only one set of matched atomic particles in the device in order to transmit instant messages. With the pairs changing spin direction extremely fast, data, including voice and pictures, could be transmitted and displayed on a monitor or over a speaker. Whatever else these Martians were, they were damned inventive creatures. Their scientific abilities never failed to amaze all of us.

A MARTIAN SECRET FROM BACK ENGINEERING WORK

(Sort of)

Almost at the same time we were being amazed by the Martian communication device, engineers had ‘discovered’ the workings of a machine on board every Martian Flying Machine. We had suspected that it was used to display data files otherwise known as Martian Electronic Documents, but we had been unable to turn it on. On the last day of December 1929 the engineers located the on button! We had access to these files taken from their machines but could not display them on their own machines.

The device was not much to look at. It consisted of a flat strip of metal 18” in length 1” wide and 1/4 of an inch thick. Embedded in a wall panel it could be protected out from the wall for 18”. Two feet below the first strip was a second identical metal strip which would project from the same panel the full 18”. For years that was all the engineers could discover until one of them, somewhat rather frustrated after months of work on the device, took out a simple screw-driver and tapped the top metal bar then the second. It immediately turned on. He had accidentally vibrated the device which sent what looked like a 1” wide sheet of light from the top bar to the bottom bar. One second later a round Martian symbol appeared as an image in the center of the 18” x 24” “wall of light.” The device was now on and standing by for someone (or something) to touch the wall of light and request a file to be displayed on what was essentially just light beams and nothing else! One of the scientists reported that “Somehow the photons of light have been made to stick together to form a new molecular group, semi-nonsolid, from billions and billions of photons to create a new form of matter completely unknown to mankind.”

Placing his hand into the wall of light one engineer activated a section of the, for want of a better word, ‘screen’. This touch of the light wall highlighted an area and a Martian document appeared to simply float in the light field. This looked like some type of directory. Moving his hand one way or the other caused the electronic document to go from one section to another. Before long the engineers found that by touching the top of the document he could “make the document talk!” Not only had he accidentally discovered how to display Martian Electronic Documents essentially in mid-air, he had discovered how we could represent Martian primary language with Martian writing. This information along with one of the devices was soon on its way to our language group North of London.

At the same time this work was being developed one of the Committee science teams, now numbering in the hundreds, began building the largest computing devices ever built on Earth. At 26 locations around the world scientists and technology people were constructing machines referred to as Semi-Automatic Ground Environment Devices (SAGED). These machines would link the worlds military forces with a dedicated computing system to track and report on craft entering the Earth’s atmosphere in a line around the North and South Poles as well as several other critical locations from the poles to the equator. It was expected to take at least four years to complete this work. Time would be critical for this new defense project.

On 1 January 1930 the Prime Directorate post passed to Director E, Thomas Edison. However, being in ill health Mr. Edison wisely passed on the duties to the next in line. Professor Dr. Edwin P. Hubble, Director F, then accepted the Prime Directorate post. He would hold the post for the next twelve months.

By mid-1930 the “Magic Twelve” group had added two new members.

A – Henry Ford (1863-)

B – John D. Rockefeller (1839-1937)

C – General John Joseph ‘Black Jack’ Pershing (1860-)

D – Dr. Nikola Tesla (1856-)

E – Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931)

F – Dr. Edwin P. Hubble (1889-)

G – Dr. Claude Connor Pierce (1878-)

H – Sir Winston Churchill (1874-)

I – Sir Arthur John Evans (1851-)

J – Dr. Albert Heim (1849-1937)

K – Dr. Walter Hohmann (1880-)

L – Dr. Sigmund Freud (1856-)

Lake Anjikuni, Canada

November 1930

As we continued to build and prepare for the war that by 1930 we all knew would come, an event occurred which could only have been perpetrated by the Martians, yet any reference to them could have caused as great a panic as any war or plague could have. We knew of course that they were still operating in small groups on Earth at least for short periods of time and had bases of operation at both Poles, and now central Greenland (via electronic map), yet we had not seen any recent indication of large scale activities by the Martians themselves – until now. This was the event, which convinced the members of the Committee that the cometary impact on Mars had killed off many or perhaps most of the human hostages on Mars. We surmised that they needed to be replaced and the cold adapted people of the northern area of Canada were the ideal people in the ideal location to hunt for humans. Director G would state, “Hell, they were still kidnapping people wholesale for god’s sake! This sort of thing must end, and end soon. We must find a way to anticipate their moves and stop them.” This event also showed us that the Martians still had no reason to take our military forces too seriously as they continued to operate virtually unimpeded over short periods of time. So far, only Earth’s generally warm weather and the physical weakness of the Martians themselves along with the still deadly Earth bacteria were keeping most of Earth’s population safe – for now.

It was on a dark and cold November evening in 1930 when a particular form of terror came to an Eskimo fishing village as the more than 2000 residents of that sleepy village rested on the shore of Lake Anjikuni, Canada, situated on the ancient Canadian Precambrian Shield. The women of the village were preparing the evening meal. After that night not a single man, woman or child from that settlement would ever be seen again. The incident at Anjikuni made it abundantly clear that the Martians were indeed taking humans on a large scale for whatever reasons and those in government with this terrible secret needed to do all we could to hide that fact from a public already becoming all too aware that once again all was not well between the planets. We needed time to react. What we did not need was panic! It would be a fine line to walk keeping the people of the world informed of the Martian problem and at the same time reassuring them that all was well. When Winston Churchill heard the details he remarked, “This event should be immediately classified since it would create mass panic amongst the general population…” I had to agree with my old friend on this one. Cover stories were still the order of the day.

The first report I saw came from a French/Canadian fur trapper named Arnaud Laurent and his son, both of whom had worked in the area for a good many years. They had just finished putting out new traps for the coming season when they observed a solid bright light crossing the northern sky. Both men would later describe the light as “… coming from a cylinder shaped or bullet shaped object, solid in form.” Their story mirrored many of the aerial reports of the 1890s found in our CAIG files.

The full Committee became aware of the incident and the surrounding events somewhat later when French/Canadian fur trapper Joe Labelle reported the eerie silence he had found in the village at Lake Anjikuni. The village was on the regular route he had taken for many years. He was very familiar with the area and the village having spent a good deal of time there among his many Eskimo friends. Finding the area completely deserted Lebelle ran as fast as he could in the drifting snow to the nearest telegraph office and sent a message to the world famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). It did not take long for members of the RCMP, along with a team of specially trained Martian investigators (CAIG), to arrive on scene. What they found defied explanation, then as now, and no-one could have been prepared for what they discovered.

Entering the village from three different directions and fully armed to do battle with anyone or anything they may find, the teams came across only silence as if they were entering a grave yard. It was a silence which none had ever experienced. No birds, no animals, no people made so much as a whisper upon their carefully crafted approach as the northern lights danced far above. Normally the village even in the dead of winter was a bustle of activity – now only silence dominated the cold of the long Canadian night. None of the team could make out any lights from lamps or cooking fires. The first thing they were able to discover was that all of the kayaks were still lined up on the beach by the lake. In that cold stillness the teams began a detailed house-by-house, building-by-building room-by-room search including all of the storage areas, out buildings and fish storehouses. They would find that none of the stores had been disturbed, but no people were anywhere.

As the teams had entered the outskirts of town they noticed that there were no trails, no human tracks anywhere in the snow. There was simply nothing to show that humans had been living there recently, yet they knew only days earlier a community had been well in place. Spreading out in a line the teams then swept the area, north to south, and then again east to west – not a sign of any living person was found. They found no bodies either. There were no signs of a battle. However, what most frightened the searchers were the conditions found inside every home in the silent village. Food had been left on the tables half eaten or in cooking pots with plates in place, as one would expect to find for the evening meal. Some meat was still hanging over several cold fire pits. Half filled glasses were present with some clothes laid out as for bed. Most disturbing were the men’s hunting rifles each man owned as all of them had been simply laid on a table or set against a wall or doorway as if they were simply discarded as if the men seemingly walked away. No Eskimo man in his right frame of mind would walk away from his rifle; it is simply not done.

One particularly strange scene was of a set of clothes on a bed which had been only half put on. The rest of the clothing was still laid across the bed. On the floor was found one shoe. Nothing was disturbed, nothing. Seemingly this person had been in the middle of dressing and simply vanished! In another hut the team found an unfinished shirt that still had the sewing needles in it. It was also clear that none of the village’s emergency supplies had been disturbed in anyway. It was very clear that all of these people had simply stopped whatever they were doing, gotten up, and walked out of their homes! But where had they walked to?

The teams called for more men to begin a larger search hoping that something had drawn the Eskimos away from the village, but that if located they could be convinced that all was well and persuaded to return to the village. That effort would end when team members found the sled dogs – all of them under a 12-foot snowdrift – still tied to their posts having died of hunger. But there was more. Just after the dogs were found two team members who had been circling around the village to check on possible injured people came running back to the operations area, which had been set up by then in one of the community centers. The men had passed the graveyard now iced over and solid with the freeze. What they reported to the team members could not be reported to the general public at the time. (In fact it is still classified.) All of the graves – every one – had been cut out of the frozen ground and all of the bodies were gone. The rocks around the graves had been melted away as if the ground had been cut open with some type of powerful heat beam. It was all too clear that the Martians had taken them all from the ground and all of the people from their homes seemingly without any struggle. It was most disturbing to learn that the Martians wanted human corpses as well as live humans. Of what possible use was a decayed human corpse to a Martian? One idea passed around the Committee was that they were perhaps planting something inside the dead bodies!

As the men stared in disbelief at the open graves they could see “an unearthly blue glow on the horizon” that was nothing like the familiar northern lights. (These men were very familiar with this often spectacular sight.) Before long the light began to pulsate, rising above the horizon and in a flash it disappeared into the darkness of space. At the same time the team discovered that their small battery operated hand radios and the portable short wave radio mounted on one of their recon vehicles began to emit a single tone across the band. This was not the first time a close encounter with a Martian craft had caused such interference. The men knew then that the Martians had kidnapped some 2000 people and over 900 corpses to a fate far too horrible to contemplate.

We also knew that cover stories would need to be published which spoke of disastrous snowstorms and lost people dying as they attempted to move south, but these were only cover for the truth. Newsmen in The Pas, Manitoba, were soon reporting on and asking for more information about this singular event. The RCMP was able to play down reports by issuing a statement that only 30 people had gone missing and that they expected to be located in short order. They called the somewhat leaked true story “an urban myth,” and tried to laugh it off. Officially they would report, “It is also believed that such a large village would never have been possible in such a remote area, and we have no reports of any other supposed unusual activity in the Lake Anjikuni area. The single report of lights in the sky has been shown to be the usual Northern Lights.” For the investigators it only steeled our determination to fight these creatures that had so often brought death and destruction to the people of Earth. To those who would indiscriminately kill and kidnap humans we would continue to fight to the death. But the question was how? We could not save any of these lost people, but we had to find some way to bring battle to our enemies from Mars.

Within the Committee it was decided that the Martians could have only two reasons for kidnapping so many humans. The needed them to continue studying ways to kill large numbers of humans with some type of bio-agent or new gas and they were probably still using humans as slave labor as well as food! Either way we all knew that it would not be long before the Martians returned in full force. We had to be ready and as always time was not on our side. The Martians it would seem were still the enemy and we needed to continue to think of them in this way if we were to survive. What they wanted the corpses for we were never able to discover. Even later, when we captured Grays and Martian As none could or perhaps would give a satisfactory answer for this strange activity.

There was one other clue to the abductions. With so many Grays still on Mars there was no real need to bring human ‘food’ all the way back to Mars. That meant only one thing. These human victims could still be on Earth somewhere, being held by the Martians – but where? The north and south Polar Regions were our only thoughts, but we needed to find out for sure.

Editor’s Note: Most of these objects were taken to Mars Prime for further experimentation – The corpses were used as base bio-mass material for budding experimentation.

Later examination of the history of this area showed that explorer Samuel Hearne had explored the region in 1770 and had reported several incidents of “strange lights and fantastic aerial craft of such man has never before seen.” No one at the time paid much attention to his ‘musings.’ In 1848 explorer Francis Crozier had also explored the area and was known to have made it all the way to Lake Anjikuni before he too disappeared leaving no trace. It would seem that this area of northern Canada was very familiar to the Martians. We fully expected them to cross this area in force during the next invasion. If we had the time perhaps we could build a few surprises for them when they did.

[END PART 46]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 47: A message from Mars, tests and cave work.]

[PART 39]

Rocket Tests at White Sands

Since 1919 Robert Goddard and his Committee team had been testing rockets in the heat of White Sands, New Mexico. By early 1923 they had made great strides in the work and the secretive Dr. Goddard had built himself a new home in nearby Roswell.

A Goddard-4 rocket had already flown to an altitude of 9000 feet, a record at the time for Earth-based experiments, but Goddard was far from satisfied. He would soon launch a 26-foot rocket from his “A-Series” which reached 17,500 feet, as well as a 28-foot rocket which flew to the unheard of altitude at the time of 19,000 feet and speeds of over 1550 miles per hour! This was his new “L-C Series” which was used to test his guidance and control features. Now it was time to press on to multi-stage rockets and achieve much greater heights over the hot blowing sands of New Mexico.

When asked to say a few words at a dinner meeting held by the locals in support of “our rocket people” Dr. Goddard recalled what he had remarked on years earlier to his fellow students.

“Just as in the sciences we have learned that we are too ignorant safely to pronounce anything impossible, so for the individual, since we cannot know just what his limitations are, we can hardly say with certainty that anything is necessarily within or beyond his grasp. Each much remember that no one can predict to what heights of wealth, fame, or usefulness he may rise until he has honestly endeavored, and he should derive courage from the fact that all sciences have been, at some time, in the same condition as he, and that it has often proved true that the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”

Originally, Goddard’s first goal had been to build a sounding rocket which could reach such heights as to make it possible to study the upper atmosphere. He did not see a time when he felt development would be fast enough to have any effect on possible future Martian adventurism. However, when the Great Earth War came he redirected his work to develop military applications to his work including navel torpedoes, mobile rocket artillery as well as a hand held rocket launching tube later named the ‘bazooka’ from the loud noise it made upon ignition of the solid rocket. With these weapons now well established in the field Goddard could spend most of his efforts on building ever more powerful liquid-fueled rockets expected to eventually place instruments into Earth orbit and perhaps send such instruments to the moon and beyond. With that in mind possible anti-Martian use came into play.

It was time to work on the new K and L series of multi-stage rockets designed to reach very high altitudes. Higher fuel pressures, more powerful engines and lighter thin-walled fuel tanks wound with high tensile strength wire added to new gyro controls were the keys to achieving this goal.

Dr. Goddard was also able to use the new metals developed by the Tesla and Edison teams working back engineered Martian technology. These new light weight yet strong ‘composites’ as they came to be known, would soon show great promise in his work. Goddard also needed new electronic controls that could take the punishment of a violent launch and still be able to steer his new rockets not only to higher and higher levels, he needed to be able to point his new smaller rockets to first area and then point targets.

It was not long before Goddard was able to launch rockets at the rate of once every two months to heights of over ten miles. He felt that with new fuels and larger more powerful engines he would be soon able to reach as high as 50 miles, well above the sensible portion of Earth’s atmosphere. However, without electrical devices able to add a good deal of control reaching great heights would be practically meaningless. Goddard and Tesla would need to get together to solve this and other rocket problems. In the meantime, Goddard’s team began to develop methods of placing large explosive devices on the tops of his rockets in order to attack targets on the ground well beyond the capability of manmade artillery and naval guns. His first goal would be to hit a target area 25 miles away.

It would not be long before Goddard’s rockets would prove their worth in not only exploration but defense of our planet. Goddard looked towards the stars for science. The Committee viewed his work primarily as possible weapons for a future war. It goes without saying that we would continue to support his valuable work with Committee funds.

It was at this time that Committee member Hermann Oberth published a small book, which was thought by most in the public to be futuristic titled The Rocket into Interplanetary Space. In reality, Oberth, under the guidance of the Committee, was introducing the possibility that would in the years to come become fact as humans pushed as hard as they could towards launching their own spacecraft. This work would also introduce the idea of a small manned space station in Earth orbit to keep an eye open for any “visitors from space!”

A Crack in the Committee Wall

Any powerful organization has its distracters especially a secret one; that is simply human nature. It is not too difficult to understand why some if not many people would be concerned about a small group of men seemingly above any type of law (which in point of fact the members of the Magic Twelve were). This was only natural. Few people are easily led by a group of unknown powerful men who hold the fate of millions in their hands. So it came as no particular surprise to the Committee that protests and demonstrations would occur every so often against this powerful group. This was one reason why the Committee decided quite early to minimize open references to their work and to direct as much publicity to national efforts and the efforts of individuals within the Committee such as Dr. Tesla without any mention of their direct involvement as members of the Twelve.

This policy of control from a background position had worked reasonably well for over two decades and seemed to be a good policy to continue for the years to come. That was until a disgruntled member working for, but not directly with, the Committee decided to publish a small pamphlet titled “A Crack in the Committee Wall.” This 85 page pamphlet described what the writer referred to as “a secret cabal of men responsible for secret prisons, assassinations, mind control, propaganda, military adventurism, torture of prisoners and much, much more.” When one takes a hard close look at many of our Committee operations the writer was not too far off the mark. And, it was something we could not allow to continue on and be re-published if we were to move forward with our work. The hunt was on for the writer known only as “Q”.

The so-called Executive Committee of Twelve operates on a level never before known on Earth. Yet, we ask: how did they acquire such power, such control over so many lives? Taking the opportunity of the Martian War these men were able to establish themselves in a ruined London able to command what resources remained of the British Empire and mold themselves with the Americans to become the only world superpower as the Martians began to fall all over the world. With funding acquired by the “nations of the world” and kept off the books, they have established underground jails and prisons that do not exist as far as anyone will ever know. Could they in fact be worse than overt control by Martians? Have we not learned from history that as prosperity grows authoritarian societies move towards less stability not greater stability?

We all must become aware of forced labor camps set up in many areas around the world that include “re-education” for all of these Committee prisoners. And there is no need to remind anyone of the “special treatment” dished out to any and all hybrids simply because they are different from most so-called “real humans.” Q

It did not take long for Tango and other security forces within the Committee to track down who “Q” really was. Not unexpectedly “Q” turned out to be a small group of pro-Brotherhood hybrids, not part of the actual Martian Brotherhood working out of Chicago. What was rather surprising, at least at the time, was that at least four members of this small group turned out to be “full-human.”

The solution to the Q pamphlet suggested by Director L was to produce responses to every issue the pamphlet exposed and to prove to “world opinion” that it was in fact Brotherhood propaganda. Our own propaganda arm made certain to include information on several hybrid attacks, including the recent loss of the dirigible Roma in order to demonstrate how much of an enemy the Brotherhood really was and how dangerous some hybrids could be in general. A second part of the propaganda program was to emphasize how much control was being developed by individual nations and their supposed “non-Committee leadership” in their own affairs as well as what major building and recovery programs had been and were still being directed by Committee members around the world. Most emphasis was made of the efforts of the League of Nations.

Even though we would still experience protests and other anti-Committee writings in the future, for the most part the “crack in the wall” had been repaired, at least for a while. In the meantime the world was soon paying a great deal of attention to a report of a destroyed Martian city. I remember at the time one of my aids remarking that the Martians “just can’t seem to catch a break.”

A Martian City Confirmed Destroyed

14 February 1923

“One down – Three to go!”

Headline – New Sydney Times

On 14 February 1923, Professor Michael Davis published his startling report on the comet, which had impacted Mars on 8 July 1920. Most of his scientific report focused on the overall planetary effects of impact, dust and secondary effects of the comet’s impact including the fact that Mars was delivered a goodly amount of water, which had been evaporated into the thin atmosphere and was now readily available for Martian use. All-in-all it was a rather dry scientific report on things Martian. (Nevertheless, it was required reading for Committee members, as many reports are.) By now the atmosphere had cleared enough to present a generally clear view of the planet. However, the most startling portion of his report was written almost as an afterthought as he was able to note that a large amount of secondary impact debris did indeed land on or very near one of the so-called Martian domed surface cities. He noted that, “All other known Martian surface locations still show reflective light and at times internally generated artificial light.”

The city at Chryse Regio however, no longer showed either, reflective or artificial light. “It is now suspected that the city near the southern edge of Chryse Regio was completely destroyed by, and or covered over by this secondary impact debris from the comet.” Much had also been destroyed by massive volcanic activity following the impact, including the covering of several canals. These outflows of volcanic materials would continue on and off for many months at times obscuring a good deal of the planet. One of the last cities on Mars was gone probably because the protective dome had been shattered by the secondary impacts. And without displaying even reflective qualities it must have been at least partially buried by impact debris. In the report it was estimated that at least one million Martians had probably been killed with the loss of this city. This must have been a crushing blow to the Martians. At the time we could only hope that it was enough to at least push back the date of their anticipated next invasion.

It was suspected that while Chryse still showed several canals in the general area it is doubtful that they could have survived penetration by debris and were probably rendered useless at this time as well. We did not have the instrumentation needed to verify damage to the canals at the time. There was no way to tell if any underground facilities near the city had been spared, but considering the damage to the above ground city and the new impact crater, survival seemed a long-shot at best. There was after all a new rather large hole in the ground that nothing in the impact area could have survived no matter how deep the Martians had dug. The final answer would lie in whether or not these canals were eventually repaired. His team’s study also showed that the Martian atmospheric pressure seemed to have lost an additional six percent of its value in one shot! The planet was now confirmed to be a dying place, at least on its surface, as even the well-adapted Martians surely could not live on its desiccated surface for long periods of time even at the lowest elevations which held the highest atmospheric pressure. It would not be long before any type of advanced life on the surface of Mars would no longer be tenable.

Those who were now keeping a very close eye on Mars were also able to see that even in the short period of time that we humans have been keeping track of Martian activities the areas upon which lush Martian vegetation had grown was now some 20% less than our first measurements. It would seem that large areas of Mars were either purposely abandoned as a source of food or were simply unable to support Martian vegetation no matter what the Martians were doing. On Earth this massive loss of productive agricultural area would have had grave consequences. What this news meant to the Martians we could only guess. We knew they were running out of options as far as food sources were concerned. Were they finding new ways to produce the foods they needed or were they ‘trimming’ their population? My thoughts were of Martians ‘acquiring’ more humans for food from Earth as well as probably breeding many more on Mars.

The Mars Watch Program teams had done much work investigating the Chryse area including data arrived at by interpretation of Martian Electronic Documents.

Chryse Regio, recently re-named Chryse Planitia from the Greek “Golden Plain” shows a good deal of past water erosion but there is little erosion by water in this epoch. It had been the final destination for the flow of water from the local southern highlands and the Tharsis bulge. The Planitia is in fact one of the lowest areas on the surface of Mars and was once a vast ocean. Martian documents report many ancient rivers once flowed strongly into the area. It is due to this low area and matched by what the Martians refer to as “an abundance of sub-surface water” that the Martians built one of their final cities on the surface of Mars. During what have been named the Hesperian and Amazonian periods on Mars large outflow channels developed (some converted to canals) with a strong ancient shoreline said to be easily seen from low Martian orbit.

Naturally newspapers around the world covered the story. But there seemed to be a general lack of victual comments in most of the stories (but not all, most notably the New Sydney Times which headlined “BLOODY MARTIANS LOSE A CITY, One Down – Three To Go!”), which were simply published as regular news reports with very little editorial comment. One newspaper even published a letter they had received which spoke of Earth sending “aid to our solar neighbors on Mars.” How this aid was expected to be sent to the forth planet from the Sun was not explained by the writer. It was published without comment by the paper. This response to the disaster on Mars was seen by Dr. Freud and most of Directorate L as a softening of the Earth’s population to things Martian. He recommended that more reports of Martian attacks be placed into the public record to curb any softening of world opinion with a close eye on popular reaction. One writer even added, “It’s a pity they make themselves as unapproachable. It would be curious to know how they live on another planet; we might learn a thing or two.”

It seemed to be a good time to remind the general public, once again, about just how deadly our enemies on Mars could be. We were after all a full generation away from the brutal Martian War. Stories soon found their way into newspapers around the world of Martian atrocities. “News” reports of events on Mars were soon being broadcast from the small number of radio stations in operation at the time. By now there were forty-three in the United States and only fifty-six spread out over the rest of the world, mostly in Western Europe. Each one of the ‘independent’ radio stations had a Committee staff member readily available to “help direct news and commentary when called upon.” Because of the visible damage caused by the comet the Committee executive staff estimated that the anticipated invasion could not be expected any earlier than 1935. Earth it would seem had been given a bit more time to prepare. We would need just about all of it. Complacency was not something we could afford to indulge in.

Editor’s Note: As a direct result of the massive impact on Mars Prime a highest level meeting was held in the Central Leadership Committee Chamber – During this meeting of the Leadership Counsel all options were discussed concerning plans to occupy Earth and move Mars Prime to the fourth planet – Options were also discussed which would lead to a massive new effort to develop new areas beneath the surface of Mars and cancel Earth options – Although the leadership was split on the possible work to receive the greatest development it was finally commanded to end any new sub-surface works and focus all efforts on acquiring the fourth planet for Mars Prime occupation – It was further commanded that no greater than half of Mars Prime population would re-locate to Earth at the end of military operations.

THE EVER EXPANDING UNIVERSE

At the same time we were confirming the loss of a Martian surface city Professor Edwin Hubble, a much valued member of the Mars Watch Program, was able to confirm that the Universe did indeed extend well beyond the edges of the Milky Way as the Martian documents had revealed (Ref: Martian Electrical Document 227P12). Objects once thought to have been nebulous gasses within the Milky Way are now seen to be individual galaxies in their own right. The Martian Electronic Documents had also reported the fantastic possibility that the Universe is actually expanding all around us. The earlier “expanding Cosmic Egg Theory” (Ref: Martian Electrical Document 294P14). Dr. Hubble planned to look into this report and attempt to confirm its validity by measuring local galaxies and their movements using a technique known as Doppler shift. If the light from a distant object in space is shifted towards the blue end of the spectrum the object is moving towards the Earth. If however, the light is shifted to the red end of the spectrum the object is known to be moving away. The amount of such a red or blue shift should tell Dr. Hubble just how fast and how far an object is moving and in which direction.

Since all of the Martian astronomical work which can be investigated by Earth based astronomers had so far proven to be quite correct (Ref: Martian Electrical Document 227P12) he had already stated that he had no reason to disbelieve the “Martian theory of Universal Expansion”. Hubble remarked, “Eventually we reach the dim boundary – the utmost limits of our telescopes. There we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial. The search will continue. Not until the empirical resources are exhausted need we pass on to the dreamy realms of speculation.”

We were also beginning to get some hints from other Martian documents that a good deal of what made up the universe of either energy or matter was invisible to much of their advanced astronomical devices. They seemed to be referring to nearly 95% of the material of the universe as somehow being “dark”. What this could be no one had a clue. There were also recently translated reports that the Martians could count an incredible eight billion Mars or Earth like planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone! No one, and I mean no one, believed that report, but what would it mean to mankind and our sense of self if it were true? Mankind’s quaint thought that we were unique in all of space and time, shocked by the brutal ‘hand’ of a Martian had been completely destroyed for all time.

The massive scale of the universe now glimpsed by man had now dwarfed mankind, and with it the cold reality that the rest of the universe had no interest in mankind’s survival. As far as we could ascertain, only mankind had a true stake in our survival. We were indeed alone in the vastness of space, at least locally save the brutal Martians who were just over the horizon, and watching our every move and perhaps a few ‘others’.

It seemed that we still had a great deal to learn from our Martian neighbors even though it was doubtful we would ever have the chance for any peaceful dialogue. This was a great loss to both planets as peaceful contact would undoubtedly be very productive for both species living as we are in the cold unforgiving vastness of space. To Martians, humans were like ants running around their destroyed sand piles putting back the pile of sand before the next time they came by to kick it down. I wondered who or what may be looking at the Martians and getting ready to knock over their sand pile!

What we needed was to create a situation by which we could force the Martians to see mankind as not necessarily equal, but at least as a species demanding some level of respect. In my view only by creating a powerful military force that could match the Martians on Earth and beyond would such respect ever come. Their respect had to be earned and we could not earn it by showing any weakness. Some in the Committee felt that our war upon ourselves did in fact show the Martians how brutal we could be to our own species, but would that brutality shown by man translate to any type of respect by the Martians? I had my doubts. Self destruction was not a good way to impress anyone.

MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT

Magic Order MO-271

Immediate: Anti-Committee and anti-Magic organizations are to be formed with the purpose of “collecting” individuals who harbor ill-will against this organization or our work. This will allow monitoring and full control of these organizations. When the time comes these members will be arrested and held during any future Martian conflict. Files will be kept on all members not working directly for the Committee.

MAGIC THREE-NEW YORK

MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT

A HYBRID TERRORIST IDENTIFIED

Reports had by now come in from American justice authorities that after several years of investigation they had identified the hybrid responsible for designing and planting the bomb used during the 16 September 1920 attack on Wall Street in Upper-New York City. They identified H-Mario Buda, an Italian national as the bomb maker. Investigators close to the case and working under young Mr. Hoover stated that Buda, a close associate of hybrid convicted murderers Sacco and Vanzetti, was identified as the bomb maker by his nephew H-Frank Maffi and further collaborated by H-Charles Poggi recently apprehended by authorities on other matters. Buda was known to be very experienced working with dynamite as well as other explosives. In the past it was reported that he had placed several explosive devices using sash weights as shrapnel as well as using other people to plant and eventually be killed by these devices. Thought to be living somewhere in Italy at this time there was now a world-wide search underway for H-Mario Buda – a known member of the Martian Brotherhood. Bureau of Investigation agents, working with Tango operatives were soon hot on the trail of the Upper-New York City bomber. He was to be taken dead or alive, with dead the much preferred option.

Earth Radio Progresses

We knew that our crude new technology (as compared to the Martians) using radio waves would not be strong enough for two-way communication with the Martians unless we on Earth built a world-wide series of large devices not only for Earth transmission, but to receive Martian transmissions. Some of our best people such as Dutch engineer Hanso Schotanus Idzerda and Argentina engineer Enrique Telemaco Susini were hard at work on the problem and had been for a good while. It was a long shot to speak to the Martians, in more ways than one – we all knew that – but the public was informed that our intentions were peaceful and that the work would continue if only to improve our own technology. What the public was unaware of was the real reason for our efforts. It was to put together a powerful series of radio monitoring devices in order to give Earth’s defense forces another system of warning in the event of any impending attack from Mars and possibly intercept for decoding any radio transmission as well as later broadcasting false messages for the Martians to pick up (Psyop). The Committee did not believe that any peace incentives would sway the Martians, but it did provide political cover for this part of the operation. The Mars Watch Program had now become both radio and optical in nature.

As back-engineered information became available from the people working on the Martian machines the teams responsible for the radio transmissions and listening stations were able to in-crease the capabilities of our radio equipment tenfold. Time and time again as new developments “came on line” we on Earth were getting better and better at tuning in on Mars. We also knew that the Martians were keeping just as good and probably better watch on Earth. With this in mind any business pertaining to the Executive Committee of Twelve or the Magic Twelve was still being sent either by fast aircraft or encoded Morse code using undersea and buried cables. No actual classified Committee information was to be sent by radio for fear of Martian interception. Only later would we develop a full propaganda program designed to send misleading radio messages expected to be intercepted by the Martians. In fact, we began sending false and misleading radio messages thought to be picked up by the Martians almost as soon as we could, but these were not part of a concentrated propaganda effort. We did however, have a section in the Committee which had the job of sending out false radio transmitters to mislead the Martians, but it was not yet a priority. That would come later as we prepared for the next expected Martian War.

It was noted during our March 1923 Committee conference on radio development that Dr. Tesla had been one of the first to pick up interplanetary radio transmissions from Mars as far back as January 1900. The signal he received was weak, but real, yet even the master electronic genius of Tesla could not confirm that the broadcast was coming directly to Earth from Mars at the time. He would later report to the Committee that, “The changes [in the signal] I noted were taking place periodically, and with such a clear suggestion of number and order that they were not traceable to any cause then known to me. It was sometime afterward (post Martian invasion) when the thought flashed upon my mind that the disturbances I had observed might be due to intelligent control. I am familiar with such electrical disturbances as are produced by the Sun, Aurora Borealis and Earth currents, and I was as sure as I could be of any fact that these variations were due to none of these causes. The nature of my experiments precluded the possibility of the changes being produced by atmospheric disturbances. Although I could not decipher their meaning, it was impossible for me to think of them as having been entirely accidental. A purpose was behind these signals; they are the results of an attempt by some beings, not our world, to speak to us by signals. I am absolutely certain that they are not caused by anything terrestrial.”

He could not have known when he first received the signal that within months Martians would be invading Earth! What Tesla had picked up were radio messages by the Martians to their Earth invasion forces. However, even if he had been able to verify that the radio messages were from Mars, at the time we had no indication that the Martians were hostile, and we had no way of deciphering the messages. Only later were we able to decipher a few sections of the integrated messages that Tesla had recorded on a crude wire recording device. Tesla had been correct. They were Martian radio transmissions.

At the time professor Garrett Serviss stepped into the discussion and stated, “So to many it has not appeared unreasonable to assume that, since it is possible to transmit electric impulses for considerable distances over the Earth’s surface by the simple propagation of a series of waves, or undulations, without connecting wires, it may also be possible for us to send impulses through the ether from planet to planet as the Martians clearly do.”

After an interview with Dr. Tesla, New York Times reporter Waldermar Kaempffert, never a fan of any type of communication with the Martians, would describe Tesla as a “medieval practitioner of black arts as vague as an oriental mystic.” He also added that those who wrote about such things “…though they could not understand what Tesla was talking about, were enthralled with his proposals to communicate with Mars and to transmit power without wires over vast distances.”

As was his way Tesla said very little to his critics, that was until a group of occultists began to spread the word that Tesla was either a Martian himself or perhaps a hybrid spy or even a Venusian who had landed on Earth by one of their spacecraft. Tesla knew that any heartfelt response he gave could easily be misinterpret by the Press so he simply stated that such claims were silly and that he had “far too much work to do to comment on such ridicules matters.”

On the civilian side of the radio equation we could report that over 500 commercial radio stations were in operation by this time in the United States alone with another 620 in operation around the rest of the world most of which were in Europe and Asia. In the still dangerous oligarchy of the Soviet Union radio was still very tightly controlled. The people were allowed to own a radio-tochka or radio-point, which could receive only a single frequency which of course was fully controlled by the Communist government. Anyone attempting to “use other frequencies” could well find themselves working a coal mine in Siberia or worse!

It was also at this time, if I recall correctly, that workers began to set up the first true computing machines using radio vacuum tubes to conduct calculations. They were crude but we were certain that future work would not only produce faster machines but much smaller ones. These first tube devices were about the size of an average office and always quite hot. Keeping them cool was a full time job. In fact they were far too hot to keep in any small underground facility no matter how well ventilated it was. We would need to find a way to do mathematical computations in a whole new manor before we could place large computer systems underground. Eventually, this problem would be solved as massive 250 ton machines would go into operation – but that development was several years away.

The 301 or Type IV “Accounting Machine” had been originally designed to use a card-controlled method which would allow for mathematical calculations but it was soon adapted to tubes which made the work move along much faster. It could make 100 calculations per minute and print out 100 cards with the information at the same time. The Committee would spend a great deal of money and time producing these machines and improving them as fast as we could.

[END PART 39]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 40: Unidentified craft, Earth moves and a little man from Germany.]

[PART 14]

[Continued From Last Week]

After many years of study by a combined team from Directorates G and L it became quite clear that certain groups of full-humans were indeed much less adapted to living in modern civilized environments. It was also clear certain groups were developing much slower than other full-human groups. The Committee would hold this detailed report “close to the vest” as to be able to “study and address the problem away from the public spotlight.” Riots we did not need. Our small group within the Committee had put forth a plan that perhaps when things settled down on the Martian front this situation could be addressed with education, counseling, training, etc, either within or outside of confinement. For the time being the problem needed to be set aside. Whether or not any decisive action would be taken in the future remained to be seen. Focus now had to be on keeping the planet united and focused on the Martians and their hybrid allies.

Looking back and focusing on the hybrids we should have viewed these hybrid crimes as an interplanetary insurgency readying itself for future terrorist attacks on our planet. Unfortunately, social politics had been allowed to cripple and blind us from the reality we all knew to be true. At that critical point we failed to step up and ignore loud criticisms from a small minority of “social” individuals and so-called pro-hybrid peace groups attempting to block efforts by the authorities, to go after these terrorists and do what needed to be done to stop them. Most members of the Committee felt that we should have simply dealt with these terrorists with a “fatal solution” before they could mount any devastating attacks rather than allow cries of “you are an anti-hybridist” to make us weak. The always-destructive social groups were using peace protests as a weapon of war and many within the halls of the Committee felt the problem should have been faced down with stronger determination and not attempt to ‘dialogue’ with the opposition. That political weakness would eventually cost thousands of lives. It is a lesson some Committee members have yet to fully learn as we continue to allow certain full-human groups on Earth to engage in massive criminal behavior without proper corrective action (education, supervision, ‘medical adjustment’, detention, banishment, etc.) to end those problems. However, that policy changed when it came to hybrids after the first massive hybrid attack, and it remains in place today. Termination has become policy for all captured hybrid terrorists.

Later, intelligence operatives would indicate the mostly hybrid organization was originally formed around a loosely connected central group, which consisted of some 100 members with five leading individuals. These leaders were the “organizers and prime target callers” known within the Brotherhood as the “Primary Five” (Mars-bred hybrids only). It was clear within their organizational structure the hybrids had adopted the group-think mentality of the Martians. This was their weakness and we could exploit this flaw. Overall, no more than 20 active groups would be formed from this base of around 1000 individuals, but they were to become very active. We would later discover at the very least the “Primary Five” were in direct radio contact with Martian advanced forces still orbiting the Earth as well as operating in the North and South Polar Regions. It was not surprising to later learn the Martian Brotherhood had received direct orders from the Martians on Mars on exactly which individuals and areas to target for their attacks. We would also come to learn the “Primary Five” were answerable to a radio contact from Mars (a superior Martian A) known only as “The Guiding One” (Ref: Martian Electric Document 74D46). This meant that the most sophisticated and powerful radios operating on Earth were in the hands of the enemy. Unfortunately, we would never establish who The Guiding One was, as this Martian A never seems to have made it to Earth.

It seemed mankind was still in an active war with the Martians, the only problem was – we didn’t realize it yet! We would soon be dealing with do-gooders who had formed several hybrid aid organizations as well. Most authorities wrongly looked at this as a policing problem not a terrorist issue. Naturally the Committee soon had operatives well situated in several of these organizations reporting to Committee security forces. As it turned out we did not have enough individuals in place or enough information coming out. Only later would we fix that oversight.

The opening terrorist salvo by the Martian Brotherhood against mankind would be made at the Courrieres’ mine in France and it would be very costly. We first heard about the attack in the middle of the night. Costly as it was it did cause world leaders to focus on the hybrid problem and really begin to deal with it on a realistic basis. The kit gloves were off – we finally realized that we were still at war with Mars! That final realization would cost over a thousand lives.

THE COURRIERES MINE ‘DISASTER’

10 March 1906

Before the war the French railway system and French coal output had been second only to Great Britain in Europe. Thanks to Napoleon and later French leaders France had modernized at such a great speed that by the start of the First Martian War there was a good deal of national pride in their industrialization. Sadly much had been destroyed during the Martian War, but a core element was still very much in place and it did not take the French long, organized from a recovering Paris, to push production back to the forefront. Courrieres Mine was very much part of that push to move forward and recover.

I felt at the time that events which occurred at the mine disaster at Courrieres, France, was probably an inevitable event, at least one like it, but one that nevertheless should have been avoided. The Courrieres Mine operation was, and is, under the direction of Directorates A and B of the Executive Committee of Twelve. The mine was one of a number of operations put into place by the Committee to not only provide much needed jobs for the people of the area, but for the much needed coal being produced which, along with oil, and gas was providing the energy needed to rebuild our shattered economics. Blame, if that is what is required, goes to the Committee for perhaps pushing the operation faster and harder than it was possibly capable of operating. The need for security against a terrorist attack was not taken into proper account and it cost us dearly. It was a lesson we needed to learn and there was little time to learn such lessons.

On 10 March 1906, the men who worked at the mine paid the price for such errors. At 6:30 in the morning a huge explosion occurred deep within the mine. The mine, having originally begun operations in 1852, had been reactivated after repairs had been completed due to the destruction of its surface facilities as a result of the First Martian War. It is now realized that these repairs had not been sufficient enough, and in that coal dust was not being removed as well as it may have been possible to remove. It would be the igniting of this coal dust by a hand carried bomb, which is now known to have caused the deadly blast. That a member of the terrorist group the Martian Brotherhood could get to the center of the mine was an error that was inexcusable. We had lost control.

The explosion had been powerful enough to throw the worker’s elevator cage from Shaft 3 to surface killing all on board. Shaft 4 elevator was also explosively pushed almost to the surface, but was jammed on the shaft rig. Several men were taken from that elevator alive, however only two of 30 survived the night. The elevator on Shaft 2 stayed below ground, but when it was raised by rescue workers it contained only the bodies of dead miners. The elevator on Shaft 1 was unaffected and would serve as the only way into the mine during rescue operations.

Editor’s Note: This was the first successful major operation by hybrids against the humans since the end of the First Terrain War.

Rescue attempts began immediately as teams of miners and rescuers worked their way along the tunnels. Very few, still deep in the mine when rescue workers entered, would be found alive, however, some six hundred miners closer to the entrance points were able to make it to the surface in the first few hours after the disaster began. By 1 April rescuers had located a few deep miners alive and had recovered some 194 bodies. Earlier there had been some good news as rescue teams had been able to reach thirteen miners on 30 March some twenty days after the explosion. These men, more dead than alive, had survived by eating two of the mine horses after their usual daily food rations they regularly took down to the mine had been consumed.

The last survivor was pulled from the wreckage of tunnel number 16 on 4 April. In all, the worst mining disaster in recent European history had cost the lives of 1,099 miners. Nevertheless, the mine would re-open a year later with new safety equipment and security regulations in place. This disaster was great and heartfelt, but the requirement to fuel the recovery of Europe from the ravages of the First Martian War was much greater. All knew we needed to continue to build up mankind’s resources in order to defeat an enemy which none could predict where they would return or when.

After the rescue and recovery efforts had been completed a Committee review showed security at the mine had been allowed to go to levels, which virtually guaranteed that this type of attack could occur. And, even though bringing the mine back into operation was critical, care was taken to insure new safety and security features, such as gas and dust removal equipment, security fencing, and guards checking passes and all equipment going into the mine would be in place and operating before new mining crews were allowed back to work. It was also found that many areas then being excavated underground by the Committee, including the three major underground city projects, were lacking in essential security and safety features. These problems of safety and security were given a much higher priority when the Committee appointed a team of mining engineers to overview all mine and underground projects to bring them up to as high a level as could be expected when it came to operational safety as well as military and civilian guards for control of all entry points. The team would report directly to an assistant director who had personal oversight of the underground operations. Accidents were still going to happen and lives were going to be lost; their job would be to prevent as many large ones as possible as well as stop any potential terrorist attacks on the underground facilities.

It would not be long before the Committee had even more pressing problems to deal with. The Martians were about to inform the world they were still very much interested in taking the Earth for themselves and they had a weapon to use that mankind had not even dreamed was possible. They would use the Earth itself to attack the creatures that called it home. This was high geo-technology at its greatest and most deadly. Needless to say, there were no public reports on the disaster at the mine, which had any reference to Martians or the Martian Brotherhood. The fact we knew they existed was a well kept Committee secret, at least for a while, even though they had sent letters to several newspapers announcing their involvement in the mine disaster. The newspapers were convinced the letters were all hoaxes and did not play up the terrorist angle, at least not at the time. (In point of fact, Directorate L had sent several letters to newspapers claiming to have bombed the mine using several false group names. These were soon shown to be hoaxes, exactly as the Committee had intended. The propaganda group had done a very good job.)

This incident showed we needed to keep much better track of all hybrids on this planet ‘friendly’ or not. It was also clear that even this better tracking could not keep this terrorist situation out of the public’s view forever. The only thing the general public knew at the time was this attack had been made by hybrids. They did not know they were very well organized or being directly supported and supplied by the Martians. Eventually the Martian Brotherhood’s existence was going to be common knowledge. We needed a plan to deal with that. The solution to that problem was to develop a team of Martian hybrid experts to go after them and kill as many of the Martian Brotherhood as we could find as fast as we could find them. This was a terrorist war and we were not about to hold back anything that would help us defeat the Martians or their allies on Earth. This was “kill or be killed” and the Committee was not going to allow anyone, and we meant anyone, to stand in our way.

MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT

Magic Order MO-55

Immediate: Identification cards for hybrids are to be re-issued with the new name designation of “H”. Example: A hybrid named John Smith will be H-John Smith. When spoken to, all hybrids will be referred to as “H” before first names are to be used. There are to be no exceptions to this order except for Excalibur personnel. Hybrids refusing this order will be placed into committee custody immediately and held indefinitely in one of the ‘holding’ properties.

MAGIC THREE-LONDON

MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT

When new ID cards were issued for all hybrids no one put up much of an argument since the card issuing department had by then reported greatly increased criminal activity by hybrids. However, when it was suggested that the hybrids be required to sew an ‘H’ on all of their clothing as an easy identifiable marking there were more than a few protests. In the wake of these protests and the possible resignation of at least three of the Magic Twelve, the full Committee soon backed away from that suggestion. It was, as Committee notes indicated “taken off the table for the time being,” but it was not forgotten. I must say I was happy about that decision to forgo the ‘H’ on the clothing. We had enough problems to deal with without creating new ones. We needed unity not division.

As far as the Martians were concerned they were not about to let us forget they were still around and still very active when it came to attacking Earth. They would continue to harass Earth’s population in as many ways as they could and keep a very close eye on humanity.

[END PART 14]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 15: Once again the Martians are on the move and so is the Earth.]

[PART 5]

WHAT I SAW IN OLD LONDON

I had been asleep for – well, I don’t really know how long. Seemingly endless and fearsome darkness had been all around me. Nothingness commanded my mind. Time had become only a distant blended dream; a soft terrible memory of which I could barely relate and could not understand. I only know that sleep had been forced upon me by an utter exhaustion of which I had never before known. It was a weariness that came from deep within my being and its demands had been relentless – so not being able to continue I slept. On the open ground I lie sleeping raw as we called it. I had simply dropped to the ground with the need so deep for sleep that I had not even bothered to check for any Martians. It would not have mattered for I was all but spent. I could not have run even if I had wanted to. The enemy had taken all of my strength and much of my will. I remember thinking: No human being can keep permanently afraid: fear goes at last to the back of one’s mind, accepted, and shelved, and done with. I was done with it.

When I awoke on that first day in our new world the sweet smell of death was everywhere, burned deep into a devastated landscape as I once again thrust my senses towards a new reality. For a second, just a second mind you, between awakening and my restless sleep, a thought had come to my wounded mind it had all been a dream. It was time to wake up now, time to go to work and earn my keep. After all, there was much work to be done. It was time to throw off this bloody nightmare. I was as if beside myself with a visceral thought that perhaps I would not be able to regain what had once been myself. Was I only dreaming? I knew a tightly controlled mind; a subconscious inner will to survive could create a fantasy world that would be all too real for someone in such a terrible situation. Was my mind projecting a fantasy world for a damaged mind? Was this really happening to me or was I but one of millions held by the Martians for whatever fate had been deemed by the gods?

Smoke and dust choked the air as I coughed and sat up to look around. This was not one of London’s famous perpetual fogs put forth due to the constant burning of soft coal. This was something other worldly. I rubbed my eyes to realize as far as I could understand that this was no dream and I was utterly alone. There was nothing, nothing I could recognize, nothing I could focus on to give me direction, at least not on the wasted ground all around me. I yelled at the top of my voice and found no reply, not even an echo as the damaged atmosphere seemed to smother even this pitiful cry for help. The world was still, damp, cold and utterly alien. I thought, There is not a breath of wind this morning, and everything is strangely still. Even the birds are hushed.

As I surveyed my new alien world I had the overwhelming sense that I was truly on another planet. I was nothing more than a stranger in a strange land. I looked up to see a Sun trying to force its weak rays upon this damaged ground. No, it was not the complete defined disk of our local star giving warm life, only a cold glowing light behind the mask of gray dirty airborne debris desperately struggling to command my sky. My sky? I laughed at the very thought. But, it was enough for a while, even though I could feel the sharp moist chill of the morning biting in this strange land. At least I thought it was morning. My thoughts were confused. Was I insane? But which way was I to go? I needed direction. I needed a plan. I needed to get the hell out of here! I needed to find food and water if I was to survive. My stomach burned. I could not remember the last time I had eaten. It all seemed so unreal.

In my confusion I somehow remembered a lesson I had taken from my days in the military of finding ones way without a compass. Searching around I found a burnt rod of metal about 4 feet long and pushed it into the ground and thus found the shadow of my dim companion. At its tip I placed a small burnt stone and simply waited. After about an hour of rest and sharp observation I placed a second small stone at the tip of the new shadow position. From these I drew a line on the ground. This was east to west. This was the beginning of my journey – the start of my new unknown life.

Life? I wondered if I would ever find any. Was I truly alone? As hard as I could I pushed the thought from my mind. Insanity? No! Such rubbish. There had to be others. There just had to be. I began to sob uncontrollably. No! Stop this nonsense. Get up man, Move. Start acting like a human being. You are no Martian, you are a man and this is your world!    My world?      …Indeed! I laughed uncontrollably.

I understood, as best I could, I had been somewhere southwest of London when utter exhaustion overcame me. No matter what remained there I knew, or at least hoped, there would be something or someone in what remained of Old London to sustain me. It had been after all the most populated city upon this Earth before ‘they’ came. So I began to walk towards the northeast. As I began to pace onward I asked myself, actually asked myself out loud, if I had any fear? Anyone hearing my ‘conversation’ might have surmised I was quite mad. Perhaps I was. Certainly there was nothing I could focus on to challenge that possibility. However, I quickly decided this new world was real and I was not insane and had no actual fear, just a resolve to survive. Fear, after all, at this point at least would have been a luxury I could not afford. At any rate I was far too numb for any fear. I guess my whole being was too shocked for any such feeling – so on I went. And if a Martian found me, well, I would meet my fate to whatever end came as a member of humanity, but I would not face a Martian with any fear. I had that much determination at least. If I found one I would do my best to kill it. Perhaps I was insane. Again I laughed out loud. Perhaps…?

As I walked closer to what I thought was old London, the smoke which had become my constant companion became thicker. Keeping to the high ground knowing I had to keep away from lower depressed areas for these may yet hold the deadly Martian Black Smoke. In areas where it had once been a sticky gray/black ash could be seen. More and more buildings or rather their haphazard stone debris that had once been buildings, appeared, many still on fire or smoldering. I remember wondering what we would do with all of these bricks and who was going to sweep up this mess. My mind was clearly not yet set to any kind of reality. I became angry at the world and then at myself for not doing a better job in dealing with these, these bloody Martians. My anger had turned inward and had no other place to go. I thought: What had I done? What could I have done other than fight alongside the rest of a suffering humanity? Press on – keep walking. There is danger here.

Fire, smoke and the sweet smelling dust of death were my world now. Charred pieces of bone and flesh could be seen from time to time half-covered by dust and smoke partials still raining from the evil skies above. Then I saw it, and it was magnificent. I had never realized how much this small yet greatly significant edifice meant to me and perhaps many others who had for the most part generally ignored it before the war. Yet, there it was, standing defiantly with its proud colors literally the only non-gray/black I could see. And even though it had dust upon its proud and stately surface for me it was a monument of great importance. My emotions suddenly burst upon me as I ran, stumbled, fell, ran again and reached out, crying, sobbing,   …to touch the top of the bright red postbox! All was not lost in Old London. That I knew, for at arm’s length was proof, proof that something, something by the gods, had survived the onslaught. There had to be more. There had to be. I sat down and laughed as hard as I ever had. To this day I know not why. Insanity seemed to rule my brave new world.

I carved my name on the side of this monument to an earlier time so as to let anyone else who may have survived know that they were not alone, that another human had passed this way. I carved an arrow dictating my direction of travel. I pressed on. I kept walking. Kept moving. No Martians to be seen – not here at least.

Moving ever forward through more piles of rubble I knew I was passing the temporary graves of thousands, no, tens of thousands of people. I could not see a single one, but I could easily smell the corpses of these war crafted mass graves. All was gray and black. Dust and then more dust and even more bloody dust! The smell, if I passed too close to one area or another burnt pile, was overwhelming. So was so much so it made my eyes burn. Or perhaps it was just the gas and dust which was swirling about. The chill was still in the air as I continued on. As I did a sheet of half-burnt newspaper blew against my legs and I picked it up. “British government moves east out of London to…” It reported nothing but old news from a time when mankind faced its greatest mortality. Is it all over?

I was getting weaker now, very weak. The thought had finally crossed my mind that I might not make it. I still had not found any food even though there had been a few sources of water, but not many. I kept my eyes open as I carefully picked my way around a sunken wall. I must have placed my feet in a soft spot for it was here that I lost my balance, rolling down a small embankment of debris landing hard at the bottom. I had fallen into a pit and as I rolled over and opened my eyes I found I was looking directly at the steel cowl of a Martian Walking Machine!

I tried to pick myself up, but I soon found myself back in the pit desperately trying to escape when I suddenly realized the Martian machine was not moving. Turning to face the machine I saw that its cold steel frame was covered with a fine layer of dust half buried in the same pit as I. There was no need to escape for the creatures that had commanded this deadly machine were themselves quite dead. After the machine had fallen the crew had opened the small lower hatch to what end they probably did not even know. I doubt they even knew what was killing them. I had come to believe they did not even care. All that remained were the dusty skeletal remains of three Martians scattered on top of each other near the hatch.

Looking at the hatch I could see the crows had taken most of what had remained from what had probably been a meal for a starving pack of dogs. Their discarded feathers had said as much. The few crows which remained did not have so much as a small piece of gray flesh left for them to tear off. There was nothing more to see in this small space which had witnessed the end of three who would be the masters of Earth. Godless Martian bastards. I dusted myself off, pulled myself out of the pit and continued on my way. Nothing to see here.

At more than one area along my route I saw areas where sparsely covered corpse had been dug up and devoured by dogs. Bits and pieces of which could not be taken as food for these packs of now wild animals remained.

I had been walking for half a day, best I could guess, when a small pack of dogs crossed my path. It crossed my mind that this was the first life I had seen for days. Then the cruel reality pushed forward in my damaged mind. They looked hungry and most desperate, but a few rocks placed well into the pack removed their attempt to use me as a new meal – all that is accept one. It was not the largest but it was nevertheless the most determined. I dare not turn my back on this one – no not this one as it sized me up. Making its final decision it came snarling directly at me. To me it seemed nearly a lifetime before it came into range of the metal pipe I had with me from my Sun direction work. The crack of the skull full breath decided the moment as the animal died before it stopped moving, knocking me over with its momentum. The pack moved on – no meal today. They needed easier pray. Life or death was the only struggle now. This time it was man who held the high ground. The thought made me laugh – man indeed.

For some strange reason the words of Charles Darwin flashed upon my wounded mind. “With all his noble qualities, with all these exalted powers, man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.” What would the great man make of humanity now? Once again I looked around for any Martians dead or alive and could see none. Where were these deadly creatures? It seemed strange not to see or at least hear another one of their beastly machines. Perhaps they had moved on. What part of this world were they terrifying now?

As I stared at my kill I found another use for the sharp end of my primitive weapon. I was now truly the primitive. Strange as it sounds, even today as I speak these words, I took the raw meat that had been the beast to sustain myself. It was as if I stood aside and watched myself do the work and then watched myself eat. I remember thinking: Is this then only a dream after all? Is this what it meant to be truly insane? Press on. Keep moving or die.

It was two more hours by my reckoning before I saw the first dust covered corpse of what had been a man, half crushed and covered with dust. Poor sod – never had a chance. Moving slowly past I could see that the bottom half had been completely eaten away. Wild dogs no doubt. Just beyond, more corpses – more pieces gone to wild animals. I kept my weapons very handy; my primitive spear and club. I was nothing more than Iron Age man on the hunt. The Martians had deemed it so. I was thinking that it could very well be a bit dicey finding a safe place to sleep tonight. Dogs! Damned dogs! Fog now began to move all around me. It was a real fog – no Martian Black Smoke was this. It was a London fog and it almost seemed, well… safe… familiar. Keep moving.

A DUST COVERED MAN IN THE FOG

As I continued to make my way towards what I now knew would be a devastated London it was not the dogs that I heard next. These new sounds were the mad cries of a man in the fog. I was no longer alone. At first I could not see him even in the generally light fog, but his voice was sharp and very distressed. This at least was not too surprising considering the circumstance we found ourselves in.

I was about to cry out to him when I heard him say, “This oafish crowd, gaping, stinking, bombing, shooting, throat-slitting, cringing brawl of gawky under-nourished riff-raff. Clear the Earth of them.”

His words did not make any sense to me. As I held my crude weapons with even greater determination I remember thinking it somehow seemed appropriate that the first of humanity I should discover alive in my shattered world should be one as mad as I surely was. I could hear him still as he came closer talking to himself with determined force.

“Our universe is not merely bankrupt; there remains no dividend at all; it has not simply liquidated; it is going clean out of existence, leaving not a wreck behind.”

With that he stopped, cold in his tracks, as we faced each other not ten yards away.

“Stop!” He said even though I was not moving. “There is no food about here. This is my country. All this hill down to the river, and back to Clapham, and up to the edge of the common. There is only food for one.”

I told the dust covered man in the torn uniform of a Home guard artilleryman that I had no desire to stay here. I told him that I was moving on to the center of London; what was left of it at any rate. Neither of us knew at the time that the Martians were finished – at least for now.

“I have no interest in your area my good man. London proper is where I am headed.”

He reported that he had been there and had seen some of their work.

“They’ve gone away across London. I guess they’ve got a bigger camp there. Of a night, all over there, Hampstead way, the sky is alive with their lights. By day light you can’t. But nearer – I haven’t seen them, five days. They kept on coming. These green stars – I’ve seen none these five or six days, but I’ve no doubt they’re falling somewhere every night. Nothing to be done. We’re under! We’re beat!”

I was far too tired to argue with him as I sat down to rest even as I kept my eyes firmly planted on my surroundings and on the dust covered man. “No Martians, as you say, for a few days.”

I thought about his remark about the food, “It seems they want us for food. First, they’ll smash us up – ships, machines, guns, cities, all the order and organization. All that will go.”

The artilleryman’s mind seemed to wander about for a thought as he stared blankly about the still thinning fog. As he spoke again it was as if I was not even there. He looked right past me, eyes glazed over. He seemed to be losing his grip on reality. He was not alone in that aspect.

“A Martian has only to go a few miles to get a crowd on the run. And I saw one, one day, out by Wandsworth, picking houses to pieces and routing among the wreckage.” He began to laugh. “But they won’t keep on doing that. So, soon as they’ve settled all our guns and ships and smashed our railways and done all the things they are doing over there, they will begin catching us systematic, picking the best and storing us in cages and things. That’s what they will start doing in a bit.”

I started to say something but as he walked away towards the west he continued to speak as to himself. I was no longer part of his new world. Once again he was utterly alone. So was I.

“I tell you,” he said waving his arms in front of him, “I’m grim set on living. We aren’t going to be exterminated. And I don’t mean to be caught either, and tamed and fattened and bred like a thundering ox. Ugh! Fancy those brown creepers…”

As he walked off into the moving damp ground fog his voice faded. I wondered if this was all that was left of humanity; a few wondering souls just trying to stay alive for one more day. Is this really all there was left? I put it out of my mind as I continued my trek towards Old London. For some reason I felt my destiny lie there.

THE ENCAMPMENT

When I saw the banner at first I did not believe what I was seeing. There was no reason to. I had pulled myself up the side of a half destroyed brick building – more of a two side wall pile of rubble than a true structure, but climb I did. I needed to survey my new world. I had not known it at the time but I had been very close to my salvation. I rubbed my eyes – they still burned. But burn as they did they did not prevent me from seeing the white sheet some 250 meters away. The white sheet had as its center piece a large red cross – and there were people, people – dozens of them! There were no Martians. I was not alone – there were others and beyond the cross I could see what must have been a government building half in ruin, to the south of the River Thames. Survivors had set up an encampment near the river on the edge of Old London with an International Red Cross team working and gathering up people. I went to my knees to rest for a while and simply look at the scene for a time. No emotion now as I took in the view. I was all and truly spent.

Soon I found myself walking – fast. Then I ran and shouted to them. I must surely have been half mad, in a dream-like world which was completely insane as far as I could tell. I laughed and cried at the same time, uncontrollably; tears streaming down. I had the thought that if I did not get there soon perhaps this would all end; it would all fade to a dream. 200 meters, 100 meters to go. More people and tents – by the gods they had tents!

At 20 meters I suddenly stopped. At first I did not know why. I did not understand. For some reason I suddenly felt I was intruding, as if I did not belong. I only vaguely, very vaguely, remember someone holding my arm and placing me on a bench of some sort. I was inside a tent, and people; people were talking to me, but I could not answer. Was this all just a dream?

“Are you all right, sir? Are you injured?”

“My name is… My… my name is…”

“That’s all right, sir. Let’s get you some tea and a bite to eat. You’re safe now. We can sort that all out later after a bit of rest then.”

I somehow remember a man nearby screaming to no one in particular. “Cities, nations, civilization, progress – it’s all over…” I was cold to his world and to his words. They did not fit my great need for normalcy.

“Yes. Yes that would be right. That’s right. Some tea please. That would be the ticket. A nice hot cup of tea would be just the ticket. Yes. Just right…” I was no longer alone in my brave new world. For some reason I felt warm for the first time in days. There seemed to be no reason to believe that this was real. I don’t recall anything else of that first day. Sleep…per chance to dream… release…

THE LOCAL WORK BEGINS

When I woke up the next day I felt much better. A bit of a wash, some breakfast in a nearby eating tent and I was ready to go. For the first time in weeks I felt like a man. The Red Cross had a command tent on the north side of the Thames, but the main control came from a large tug docked or rather beached near one of the many stairs which led to the river bank from above. I asked if there was anything I could do to help and was immediately rewarded by being placed with a group who were going out to locate survivors. It was going to be a long day, but I needed to do something constructive and this was just what I needed to do. Somewhere still out there, there were lives to save during this very confusing time.

Rescue teams were moving out in all directions combing and calling out at the ruins for anyone who may still be alive trapped in the debris. Mostly we came upon only silence yet every once in a while we miraculously found a survivor. But time was running out for those trapped in the rubble. Digging with whatever we could find and with bare hands we pulled one then another – on and on. More often than not when we found a living person we also found a number of dead. As we searched for more life other teams went about pushing clear paths around the rubble in order to expand our capabilities to maneuver around. Brick by brick they were pushing the war aside so that life could once again find room to breathe.

As we worked one man beside me began to bemoan the situation. “There won’t be any more blessed concerts for a million years or so; there won’t be any Royal Academy of Arts and no more nice little feeds at restaurants…” I did not have the energy to debate the issue as he continued to ramble on.

On many of the broken and burnt walls one could find notes posted by people hoping to reconnect with lost loved ones, most would never find the ones they were searching for. It had been all too much.

As we worked we made no attempt to identify any of the corpses. What we found we burned as soon as possible. The dead needed to be dealt with speed. This was a must. Many were not whole bodies. At times only a bone or two or perhaps a leg or an arm badly displaced. This was to be sure, an unprecedented situation, and we had no time for ceremony – that could come later. Our work was for the living. We knew however, as we found survivors we were also finding people who could join our ranks and our work would speed up, but only for a while. For the most part we had no more than seven or eight days to find survivors in the rubble – one can only live so long without vital food and water. We needed to press on. At least the river was functioning at least for the most part if one got past the flow of bodies. We had no cleared roads to any great distance save those we could push through locally.

During a rest period I sat next to a man who had recently come from the center of London near Piccadilly Circus. He had hidden for a while in the ruins of Regents Park. Like many he had a tale to tell.

“One night last week some fools got the electric light in order and there was all Regent Street and the Circus ablaze, crowded with painted and ragged drunkards, men and women, dancing and shouting till dawn. A man who was there told me. And as the day came they became aware of a fighting-machine standing near by the Langham Hotel on Portland Place or what remains of it looking down at them. Heaven knows how long it had been there. It must have given some of them a nasty turn. He came down the road towards them, and picking up nearly a hundred too drunk or frightened to run away. Everything was going right until they started the war. Everything was going like clockwork. Everybody was busy and everybody was ‘appy and everybody got a good square meal every day. If you couldn’t get it anywhere else, you could get it in the workhuss, a nice ‘ot bowl of soup – skilly, and bread better ‘n anyone knows ‘ow to make now, reg’lar white bread, gov’ment bread.”

Before long more ships were docking at many rushed and patched together points all along the Thames. Building small docks was becoming common place. A few pieces of charred wood a few large stones to walk upon. The river had become a lifeline once again for the survivors of old London with vessels of all kinds lining its muddy banks. Food supplies were being brought in from outlying areas less devastated than the most populated areas of London. One situation perhaps not too shocking was the overall cooperation of the local people. There was no real security other than the riflemen situated at several points to keep away the packs of dogs; no central police or military, yet that did not seem to matter. People in London just helped each other and the work somehow got done. What we did not have the people simply went without or improvised a local solution.

After a few days at the Red Cross camp I knew that I needed to move on so I said my goodbyes to those good people and began to walk once again towards central London. There I located a few more buildings that had more or less survived somewhat intact. There were also many more people moving about trying to clear roadways and set up temporary shelters. Around noon on the second day of my new wanderings I stood on a large pile of rubble to see a devastated central London. Even with all the damage there were several partial buildings I could identify barely. It was while I stood overlooking Old London that church bells began to ring. A few at first but before long those churches which still functioned rang their bells as hard as they could. As I came down from my perch a man greatly agitated ran past. He stopped briefly to tell me the news.

“It’s over. The Martians, they’re all dead! Some type of disease they say got them all.”

I looked around and was surprised to find a damaged, but still usable notebook so I began to write. “The bells of London are ringing. The war is over. The Martians had been repulsed; they were not invulnerable…” Man would once again command the high ground of Earth, at least for the foreseeable future. I was too numb to comment.

AN OLD FRIEND

Later that day as I began to survey and understand the true extent of the damage locally I came to a cross roads just off of the Thames where several buildings were mostly still standing. They were being used as a type of combined headquarters. People were busy with all manner of work and it was indeed a very mixed group of civilians, military and what remained of government officials. It was here I ran into a young friend of mine, Winston Churchill. He had a minor role in government before the war. As I recall he had entered Parliament in early 1901 as a Conservative. We had met years earlier at Sandhurst but only after he had failed to be admitted twice! He did not like to be reminded of those early failures.

“Winston! Hello Winston. How are you?”

“My god man, is it really you? I see you survived this bloody devastation.”

“Yes, but only by a hair’s breath.”

We shook hands about as strongly as two men ever could.

“Indeed, my man as many of us have. Listen old chap it’s quite amazing to see you at this time. You are just the sort of man I have been looking for.”

“Oh! How’s that?”

As we forcefully shook hands he told me that a new world organization was going to be formed with London as its base. He also asked me if I would be interested in joining in the work. I naturally agreed more because I had nowhere else to go or do than any other reason. I thought I would do the work for a few months or perhaps a year or two before moving on to other things. It didn’t turn out that way.

“We are forming a new group, a world government and all that. With what remains of our world-wide possessions and with the efforts of those American chaps across the pond we feel it can be properly done. We need an historical writer who can put everything down. Will you do it old chap, at least for a while? We could really use someone like yourself.”

As I was well acquainted with the writing arts I felt that this could very well be the best way I could contribute to the overall effort needed for the recovery. On the more practical side of the equation, what the hell else was there to do?

“How can I refuse? My work is gone, my home and papers all destroyed and there does not seem to be much more I can do out in this rubble.”

“Splendid old boy. Come on inside and let me introduce you to the group. There are some superb minds in there and we are calling together as many bright minds as we can from the four corners of the Earth. It’s time to put this old world of ours back together again. Maybe we will do it right this time.”

As we entered the large room I could see several telegraph operators, some in ragged military dress, tapping out the news that the Martian War was over. I did not know it at the time, but among the telegraph operators was none other than Dr. Nikola Tesla. He is an extraordinary man who had been visiting Old London at the start of the war, and one who would come to mean so much to our recovery efforts in the years ahead. He is a truly gifted individual. At the time however, he looked as weather worn as the rest of us. Only later would I remember that this place, this St. Martins-le-Grand, had once entertained Guglielmo Marconi years earlier when he demonstrated to the people of London his wireless devices. It seemed most fitting to be in this place. I wondered at the time if Marconi had made it or had he been lost to the Martians?

Our work was just beginning as we informed the world of our plans for recovery. I later recalled, “Thence the joyful news had flashed all over the world; a thousand cities, chilled by ghastly apprehension, suddenly flashed into frantic illuminations…” At the same time I could not take my mind off the fact that only a few minutes earlier we had walked past a group of uniformed men preparing to execute a man who had been found to have raped and then murdered a woman. It seemed to be a simple act to execute someone yet it was more than a little disturbing to note that my friend Winston had barely taken any notice. Was this to be our “brave new world”? And who were we going to chose to control it? Who along with myself would record these events for future generations? As the shots rang out I sat down and put a few scribbled words to the paper I held, “This had truly been the war of the worlds…”

We now knew through the hard lesson of a bloody interplanetary war that we needed to be much better prepared than we had been in 1901. That was clear enough. What we did not know was how long we had to prepare or any real idea of how that work could ever be accomplished. We did know this much; recovery would not be made by quite soles; it would come from men who would be able to make cold ruthless calculations at times costing many lives. It would take men who could make life and death decisions, and then retire for the rest needed to face the next day, ready to command the next series of crises. With that mind set we survivors called together a group of individuals who would be tasked to lead the world away from the abyss and back to what had passed for civilization.

Using what remained of the beaten and bruised British Empire, the largest organization on Earth at the beginning of the First Martian War, and as such the one organization with enough surviving assets to make a real effort possible we would press on. Matched with the known resources and proven capabilities and industrial might of the rising Americans we began the work. This would be the boldest rebuilding plan ever conceived by man.

It was time to put our planet back together again if we could and we would write the rulebook as we went along. That at least was the plan put forth by a group of men calling themselves the Executive Committee of Twelve. For me it was time to enter a very dark world few would ever know and none could ever leave, and in the end it would consume much of my life and reach down to my very sole. In the deep wells of my mind a thought was stirring. Did we not learn from history that centralizing absolute power in the hands of a small group was a failure that we had yet to learn from history? With my eyes wide open and my head held high I had willingly entered my private little hell with a silly little smile firmly planted on my face.

[END PART 5]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 6: The Committee of Twelve.]

Welcome to R. Michael Gordon’s
The Aftermath of the War of the Worlds
presented by David Joseph

This original work of fiction will be presented in 76 parts in classic book format on this website; one part every week for the next 76 weeks. Once posted each section will remain available for review at any time.

If you have ever wondered what happened to Earth or the Martians after H. G. Well’s classic science fiction work, The War of the Worlds, now is your opportunity to have that question fully explored and answered in this first time published work.

          We hope you will enjoy this story as told to all of us by a single member of a small group of survivors tasked to rebuild the world from the ashes of this interplanetary war after the defeat of the Martians as they prepare the re-built nations of Earth for the very real possibility that the deadly Martians may someday return to attempt once again to conquer the people of Earth.

          So dear friends of Earth strap on your ray gun and hold on tight to your loved one for its going to be a rough interplanetary ride as we present Part One of The Aftermath of the War of the Worlds, Edited by R-Michael Gordon of the Earth Studies Directorate.

(*Author of the non-fiction book: The Space Shuttle Program: How NASA Lost Its Way)

The Aftermath
Of the War of the Worlds

 Edited by
R-Michael Gordon
Earth Studies Directorate

Editor’s Note

In December e.y. 2028, at the end of the Terrain Wars (12,901), a highly classified electronic document was discovered along with several supporting documents both electronic and plant based by a team of Earth explorers – These and other documents had been locked away in a deep vault which had been protected by members of a long defunct organization led by men known as the Executive Committee of Twelve – This historic account, recorded by a senior member of that group, details the history and many of the inside secrets of the organization first formed in the ashes of their first modern war with Mars Prime (Terra Project).

Although many of the events recorded in this document, dated from e.y. 1901 to 1939, are generally known and are thus familiar to those interested in Earth history, it is the insider view of these events, many of which have never been disclosed, that mark this electronic document as extraordinary – This single individual seems to have been responsible for recording much of the inside secret workings of the primary command and control group from its inception and thus the history of the Committee and as such held a unique position and perspective into their operations, many of which go well beyond legal documents or written laws known to have been generally incorporated by nations on Earth at the time of their creation.

This is also a record of the recorder’s personal thoughts and how this individual eventually parted with the organization and at what cost to him – Even though this first international organization on Earth no longer exists there is much we can all learn from one who personally witnessed much of this previously little known organization’s historic efforts to bring their world together anyway they could no matter what the cost in order to do battle with their enemies on Earth as well as on Mars Prime.

R-Michael Gordon
Editor – Earth Studies Directorate (eESD)
m.p.12,914

[PART 1]
The Aftermath
Of the War of the Worlds

First Thoughts of the Day

I have stopped running for I have lost my strength and must rest. I know once again I am very much alone at the moment in a world nearly destroyed and I am getting too old to play cat-and-mouse with my enemies. Why I am still alive when so many others are dead I cannot say. I do not know, which is the better path – life or death on such an uncertain world as I now find myself.

The last deadly Martian machine has fallen silent, of this I am certain, yet I find myself still in a hazy period of doubt and fear. It will not be long now, for I was one of the few who know the whole story, and as such I am a danger to those now in power. As had most of you, I fought with a struggling humanity against the invaders. I was there for all of it, beginning when I wore the strange clothes of a much younger individual; from the first when humanity learned of the Martians until their final attack only days now past. Since the early days just after the end of the first war which had held all of our Earth in its deadly grip my professional career has been spent almost exclusively in service to the group working on the “Martian Problem” mostly at headquarters at the executive staff level and as such I had complete access to all areas of the work. The work held no secrets from me. This was also where I met my future wife and where our child was born. Who am I? My name is not important, but as a man of letters I may perhaps be allowed to flatter myself and state that if you heard my name it would be familiar to many who have followed the Martian War reports.

I had wanted to tell the rest of humanity the true history of these events but mine was the only voice in that confining wilderness as the others did not agree. I knew then I had to escape as dissent was not to be allowed on this critical issue. The secrets we hold had become the controlling force on Earth not the men who held them. The truth no longer matters and the only currency of value now is power. Perhaps it has always been as such. By way of this recording I now hope to report to you the people of Earth all I can recall from memory as well as from a few unauthorized notes I made from time-to-time along the way. I also hold a few official documents to jog my memory of certain events. It was a journey, which brought the world back from its greatest destruction in human history and it became our greatest victory. For the people of Earth the full journey has taken thousands of years. For me it has become an odyssey of some 37 short years and yet its secrets have made me older than my time spent on Earth.

Death is naturally the penalty for revealing this information, but death no longer holds any power over one such as I. There is no longer any fear for I am past such earthy concerns. Like many others the journey has brought to me a realization of who I really am and I have come to accept the truth of my guilt. I, as had the others, have committed ruthless acts in this dangerous world to protect the rest of humanity from the perils of the invader and have thus become less than human. We had at times become even as ruthless as our enemies on Mars. We have seen ourselves and had not liked what we have seen. The abyss is far too close.

It is certain some have come to know the general story, which is just now being taught in patched together institutes of learning still within the rubble, but as you shall soon learn the telling is not complete by such a long score. I shall tell you details of the inside story most of which is not yet available to the general public, but my time is short and the telling must be completed before I leave this world. There is much to say and I need to have this story recorded so that it will not be forgotten or forever hidden from the people of Earth. For you see, the people have every right to know the true story, not just to learn the real history of these and other world events but because it is your story. All must learn from these events and thus be better able to plan for a future far from certain. That is not to say that all secrets will be revealed, as there are still such secrets, which must remain hidden if for no other reason than to protect mankind from themselves. There are things in our universe of which mankind as a whole are not yet prepared to understand nor accept. I may only say that to the stars humans are but children wondering about in the darkness looking for a shining pebble of truth. Humans have so much to learn if only they have the time to learn and understand. That is the task I leave for all of you.

            Nevertheless, I shall tell you about the aftermath of what became known as the First Martian War so far hidden behind official secrets and well-worn lies, and I shall tell you how close “we humans” really came to utter extermination on planet Earth during the Second Martian War, which has just recently come to its bloody conclusion. At least I believe this to be true – certainty holds such a fleeting embrace. You see the Martians were never content with simply winning a global war and taking the planet. They were fully intent on destroying all of humanity, and make no mistake they still are! Yet they would prove that advanced evolution in a species did not ensure a race of morally superior beings. Humans have nothing to learn from the Martians in morality. What they may have learned from humans may only be guessed at. Certainly they learned that mankind could be as brutal as their own – perhaps even more so. We have learned these lessons ourselves. It is perhaps the one great human truth.

We all remember when the Martians returned in force to once again spread death upon our fragile planet – at least many think they do, but that bloody conflict was only the latest struggle of a much more detailed story. The background of that second conflict and what we learned between Martian wars sent chills down the spines of those such as myself who had been tasked by ourselves, reformed governments and secret organizations to protect this world from enemies known as well as those never suspected and still hidden even from those few in positions of true power.

When word finally arrived that the Martian machines were falling silent around the world during the First Martian War, even as they continued to sweep all before them as one would push aside a trail of ants, our first tasks were clear: Order needed to be restored as after all wars, and lives would need to be put back together as best they could even though the losses had been staggering. Fully one half of all humanity had fallen before the Martians before they themselves succumbed to the humblest creatures on Earth. Whole cities, once mighty upon the land, had been completely destroyed, as were much of their populations. Many cities and smaller communities may not be rebuilt for generations; some will never be rebuilt, as they no longer reflect even rubble so completely devastated were they by the new and even more powerful Martian war machines. Yet even as much of Earth lay in ruins we went to work. There was no other choice.

As the rubble from the first Martian War was cleared from the “luckier” areas and the bodies were burned or buried, no one had time to think of the enemy who had been so thorough in its attempt at world conquest. Most who had survived the holocaust knew that our first work needed to focus on the living and prepare to rebuild our badly broken world. Nevertheless, before long, when nights were once again peaceful and calm thoughts turned to Mars, the certain reality came to us that our enemies on that ancient dying world had only been defeated on Earth and even then not by the hand of men – the Martians still held sway over their own dying world and they still looked with envious eyes towards this badly wounded, but still beautiful planet. Earth still held the water and other resources badly needed by the brutal Martians and they would continue to do whatever it took to take what they needed at any price, including the ‘nourishment’ that walked upright upon this world. It was soon realized that the Martians must attack the Earth again – they had no other choice if they were to continue as a species. We had to be ready, for if we were not, the next time they attacked in force, humanity might not be as ‘lucky’ as they had been the first time. Earth needed to build for peace as we prepared for the ultimate interplanetary war. Those two goals became the primary mandate of The Executive Committee of Twelve; the group of which I was to become a part.

We know now after long years of dedicated historical and archeological research the Martians had looked with murderous eyes for many millennia towards this blue planet. Their decision to attack was preceded by much effort and planning. These are beings that plan well into the future as a single unit, seemingly a single mindset. The workings of the humble ant would be a close approximation of their type of mental and civil organization yet at a much higher intellectual level. They cared not for the one, but for the whole. Water was of course the key to their many efforts as the dissected red dust on Mars continued to obscure and obliterate their once proud domain. Water that pressed every continent and every square yard of this planet be it in the air or seas or on the land must have seemed a torment to the inhabitants of Mars who needed to husband every drop they could out of the poles, the frozen ground and even their Spartan atmosphere in order to survive just a while longer. This torment made them strong. It made them determined. It also made them insane, for they never even considered asking the people of Earth for the help they desperately needed. Knowing humanity as I feel I do, it is clear that help would have come and gladly.

            Now as I walk among the exhibits and other objects housed in this small underground Committee storehouse from the First and Second Martian Wars, memories flood my mind in a torrent of short, flashing, painful events, which will never really end, save for death. Like many others, perhaps yourself, I can never really escape their constant pressing on my mind. I am taken back without recourse to the sights and smells of the first dead Martians I ever saw burned of flesh, pressed hard to the cold steel of their fighting machines, tentacles limp, remembering their dead black eyes, which never showed emotion or compassion at any time even when they were alive. I recall the end days of the First Martian War when mankind was all but defeated, when nothing “we” simple and backward humans could do would end the ceaseless bloody attacks upon this devastated planet; when humanity was about to breath its last breath of hard fought freedom. Yet, the end of this world never came as the Martians began to fall – a few at first – but more rapidly as the days rolled on until the tiniest viruses on Earth took their final deadly toll on the invaders one and all. As I now glance at the cases of gas masks and other debris of war I remember the dead Martians being dragged out of their fighting machines as most were simply burned on the body piles. I also remember the packs of starving dogs and black birds ripping at the diseased flesh for a meal before their terror ended as well. Yet some, as the one before me in the elongated case much like a coffin, are still displayed; one or two of these repulsive creatures in several viewing areas around our devastated world to remind us all of those creatures who would have been our masters, but for the humblest creatures placed upon this Earth.

            Humbly, I recall, it was Herbert Wells who many believe expressed it best for mere humans when writing of the First Martian War fought in 1901 as it pertained to the southern British sector of that world conflict, and of the end, which came to those first Martians near old London town. The author called it “The War of the Worlds” – a fitting title I would think for such massive devastation and terror. This tale, like many others to come out of that bloody conflict between the worlds, tells of this writer’s close personal contacts and mental battles against the Martians as he viewed such a small yet important part of a war, which had quickly, became worldwide. Of course the author could not have known that at the time he experienced the events he wrote of in his small confining area of Earth, devastated by the seemingly mindless brutality of the Martians, that this truly was a ‘War of the Worlds’. Little did this writer know that his words could not be an epitaph for the Martians, but merely a prologue to an even greater conflagration, one which would not only bring its singular death and destruction back to one world, but surely to two worlds; one as ancient as time itself, and another who’s intellectual youth had yet to reach for the stars and yet reach they must if they are to survive the struggle forced upon them from beyond this simple world of blue skies and cool water bathed shores.

This story of mankind’s titanic struggle on this and perhaps other worlds will continue and may yet have a very different and apocalyptic conclusion for all of mankind if we do not learn the lessons of the aftermath of this Second Martian War. We must learn from this interplanetary struggle and never forget that which has been so devastating and that which has cost us so much. I beg you to listen closely and remember “The Aftermath” of “The War of the Worlds”…

A member of the Committee

A Word from H. G.

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.

                                                                                       Herbert G. Wells, 1901
Writing from the rubble of the First Martian War

       The Martians: Committee Field Notebook Number One
1901-1910

THE FIRST MARTIAN WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH

Chapter One – 1901
The New World – Year One

Chapter Two – 1902-1905
The Earth Rebuilds from the Ashes of Planetary War

Chapter Three – 1906-1910
The Battle with the Martians Continues

Chapter 1

1901
The New World – Year One

“And from what remained of the past the gods recreated the heavens upon the Earth.”
Ancient Babylonian Tablet

The first day of a whole new world – What we failed to properly see – “The War of the Worlds” – What I saw in old London – The Executive Committee of Twelve – The ‘last’ Martian attack of the war – Continuing to reorganize the world – Testimony before the Executive Committee of Twelve – Early Martian contacts discovered – The rebuilding of Earth’s civilization begins again – Martial Law – The Earth’s population goes underground.

The First Day of a Whole New World

“Every organized government in the world was shattered
and broken as a heap of china beaten with a stick.”

H. G. Wells

This had truly been “The War of the Worlds”. What remained of a devastated humanity scattered widely about our ruined planet by the winds of interplanetary war would now have to face “The Aftermath” of that bloody conflict. Those of us who survived were now awakening to the terrifying first day of a whole new world remembered by damaged minds to be in the late stages of the year 1901. It had come as a thunderbolt – aliens had landed on Earth! As with most others it would be years before my nightmares of war would fade, but they have never completely left my mind.

Clearly I remember the day and the very hour when reports heralding the end of the Martian attacks were telegraphed around the world as soon as the machines and wires could be repaired. That manmade network of copper wire encased in rubber had somehow not been completely destroyed. Very few locations with operational and experimental wireless receivers were able to learn the news immediately. Most areas would be late in receiving the news; at times as much as two months after the last deadly Martian Heat-Rays had fallen silent. To many outer lying areas, reports had to be sent by ship or dirigible or even dispatch riders. In scattered areas around the world when word first arrived signaling the end of hostilities, crude single page flyers were published and posted on the rubble. Church bells often rang out when news reached the smoldering remains of cities and towns, many of which barely had any buildings still standing that the greatest war ever visited upon humanity was finally over.

This war had lasted less than eight weeks, yet it had been the most devastating social and economic upheaval the Earth had ever experienced and now we were all in the same bloody mess. Simply stated the world human beings had once known was dead, but not yet buried. The Martians had committed mass murder on a scale never before seen nor imagined by anyone on Earth. During the first days of the war the Martians had taken prisoners, but not as anyone would imagine such captives to be. They were simply ‘harvested’ as substance for the blood thirsty Martians. When that need was satisfied pure slaughter on a grade scale became the norm. They would simply ‘thin the herd!’ Inadequate are yet the words needed to describe the horror visited upon this planet. Only later would we come to understand that at no time and in no place did men stop the relentless defense of our planet. Even when all hope had gone humans continued to do battle to the death. No quarter was given and none was accepted as thousands of corpses became the only barricades against the Martian hordes. We would come to learn that putrefaction could be a welcome allied.

The Martian/human hybrids that had been brought to Earth by the Martians as part of their invasion force had also ended hostilities, although many of them had refused to fight at the onset for their Martian A masters (the ruling species on Mars) once they had arrived on Earth. But it must be said that the small percentage, which did fight, caused a good deal of damage. The deadly bacteria had not affected most of them. Yet, in the end, some of them would turn out to be more ‘human’ than much of mankind as they too endured the aftermath of the First Martian War. Others were to cause great troubles for years to come. They were all now part of our strange new world.

The Martian Bs or Grays, as they have come to be known (thought to be a less advanced species of Martian), were all either killed by Earth’s military forces during the early part of the fighting or taken as food by the superior Martian As. As with their masters none of them survived on Earth for very long.

The First Martian War had certainly brought great devastation to much of Earth. Millions were dead, many nations were completely destroyed, and many crops were devastated, with our thin lines of communication cut all over the planet. We soon realized that even though the war may have been over the battle now enjoined by what remained of humanity at every level would be one of simple survival. Scientists would later estimate that since the birth of life on Earth some 97% of all species who called Earth home had become extinct. The Martians had done their very best to add humanity to the ever growing list. Our destroyed infrastructures meant we were all equal now. To be sure, starvation and disease would soon follow, adding to our horror as mankind throughout much of the world dragged itself up from the stench of death and war in an attempt to simply continue from day to day. Many did not survive even though the threat of Martian attacks had ended, at least for the time being. Perhaps for the first time in man’s history we were as one. I could not help recalling the words of Dr. John Donne those many years ago. “Any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

Many of the great cities of the world had been completely devastated as if from the strongest storm mankind could ever hope to endure. London, the most populated city on Earth at 6.5 million, where I found myself at the end of hostilities, was a mere shell of itself, yet tattered and torn Union Jacks could soon be seen defiantly flying upon the highest rubble to be found in many burned out areas. Berlin, which held 2.7 million, before the war and defended with what historians would later call “fanatical courage”, was not much more than a flat desert plain of blackened and burned rubble. Paris, the great “City of Lights,” once home to 3.3 million was unrecognizable, save the pile of burnt, melted and twisted steel that had been Mr. Effie’s great tower built for the Paris Exhibition of 1889, which at 984 feet had been the tallest man-made structure on Earth. The Martians could not miss seeing that. Moscow, where a final desperate push by the Martians had been stopped cold by the largest marshaling of artillery the world had ever seen, was a mere shadow of its former self. Tokyo, Bangkok and Manila along with many other cities of the old and new worlds no longer existed! Melted stone walls which had flowed like rivers of lava were the ever present hallmarks of their powerful Heat-Rays. There were no defenses against such weapons.

In the American east, Philadelphia, New York, the largest of the American cities, which before the war held some 4.2 million residents, Boston and much of Washington, were not much more than a wasteland of blackened and melted debris with thousands of fires still burning. Lord Bryce had recorded in his 1888 work American Commonwealth about some of the failures of American cities. Here he found “extremes of wealth and poverty” as well as “crowded marble palaces of the rich” whose doorways had been “haunted by beggars.” Both the palaces and the beggars had departed the scene.

A single tattered flag showing the Stars and Stripes could be seen flying from a tall twisted pipe where it is said the American Congress had once met. There was nothing to indicate that this was so. None of the familiar buildings or monuments in any large city along the East Coast of America stood on the day the Martian machines fell silent. Certainly there was recognizable debris, but not much more than that. In lower lying areas pools of solidified steal and stone had cooled to form strangely beautiful metallic-rock lakes as if time had somehow stopped all meaning in their reflective gaze. Even ‘Lady Liberty’, better known as the Statue of Liberty, given to the American people by the people of France, was now a twisted and melted relic unrecognizable all accept the arm that had held the torch. Chicago, St. Louis, Denver and many other great cities in the ‘New World’ were not much more than burning ghost towns. The corpses, representing only a small percentage of those lost, were too numerous to count.

On the American West Coast, Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Diego were all in ruins for they had taken the brunt of the attacks off of the Pacific as the Martians swept in from the coast seemingly aiming towards the central plains of the United States and Canada. Only the falling of the Martians from the deadly bacteria stopped them from destroying the vital central valley of California. It was only with luck that they never made it in full strength to the vast farmlands of the central United States, Canada, nor the vast steppes of Russia, which would, when combined, became literally the breadbaskets for the rest of the world, but only after we could find enough transportation to move these life giving grains to the millions of people who needed them desperately. Even with that the destruction had been vast.

            The major population centers of the southern hemisphere fared not much better than the north. The cities of Cape Town, Southern Africa, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Auckland, New Zealand, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, were completely destroyed; showing only piles of rubble with burned human remains sired into the very stones with only shadows showing at times and blackened corpses now rotting everywhere. In many areas the never to be identified remains were piled in heaps entangled as if one mass. One could not imagine that humans could actually melt! In both the northern and southern hemispheres many large areas of many ‘modern’ cities were so completely destroyed they would have to be abandoned altogether.

            We were shocked to later learn that for some reason, which has never been explained, the Martians gave particular attention to Jakarta, Indonesia. Perhaps it had been a test area of how much devastation they could truly inflict upon a chosen area. Their brutal attacks again and again on that once proud community left it as an unrecognizable zone of burnt, melted, and baron ground. There was no vestige remaining anywhere that human presence had ever known this place. No living thing stood upon this desolated moonscape or for that matter below the ground on that once heavily populated site. Jakarta was not just attacked and destroyed; the bloodthirsty Martians incinerated and melted it into non-existence. No destruction on Earth in recorded history by man or nature had ever been as complete. Jakarta could never be rebuilt as it has completely vanished from the surface of Earth and is now only to become a fast fading memory, as later investigations showed not a single artifact of human presence was ever to be discovered. One of only a handful of survivor’s remembered, “Never before in the history of warfare had destruction been so indiscriminate and so universal.” We had all come to learn the devastating global nature of modern interplanetary warfare as practiced by the Martians.

            Records would indicate that before the war Earth’s human population had stood at a little over 1.6 billion. After the war Earth held an estimated 800 million people upon its fragile surface. This had been more than genocide. This was mass murder on a scale almost too great to comprehend. A good example of such loss may be seen in the United States which held some 76 million soles at the start of the war – estimated at around 41 million struggling survivors by war’s end. The Martians had killed half of the people living on planet Earth in only a few weeks. London’s population had been 6.5 million representing the most populated city on Earth, New York’s stood at 4.2 million, Paris held some 2.7 million, with Berlin at 1.9 million. Tokyo had as many as 1.5 million residents, the same with Wuhan, China. After the Martians ended their attacks London’s population fell to 1.4 million, New York 1.1 million, Paris was estimated at 900,000, Berlin could only count 400,000 souls, Tokyo held 300,000 survivors and Wuhan had less than 100,00 people in and around the general area of that completely destroyed city. The remaining populations were to be held as little more than human cattle to feed the millions of Martians yet waiting to ‘immigrate’ across the ethereal border to steal all they could from Earth.

            Many national leaders had also fallen during the war. Britain lost its Prime Minister the Marquis of Salisbury, France had lost Emile Loubet, Germany lost William II and Japan lost Emperor Mutsuhito along with countless others. This list is far too long to recount. The war had also destroyed a great amount of railroad track and rolling stock that seemed to be a special target of the Martians as these manmade resources had represented at the time the cutting edge of ‘modern’ technology and man’s advancement on Earth. Rail systems around the world had been greatly responsible for linking mankind and developing advanced economies. Cutting our lines of communication and modern infrastructure appeared to have been two of their strategic goals. Thus the modern engines of the industrial age had been cut down to such low levels not seen for decades. Nevertheless, we still had a workable amount of rail lines and engines intact so their attempts to destroy that portion of our planet’s manmade infrastructure had been only partially successful.

When we were able to assess the damage there were many examples all around the world of infrastructure destroyed. Of the 193,000 miles of track in the United States, which at the time represented half the world’s active railway lines, the greatest on Earth, at least 130,000 had been destroyed. In Russia all but 10,000 miles of her 33,000 miles of track were laid to waste and in Britain some 14,000 of her 19,000 miles of railroad infrastructure had been lost. However, no modern industrialized nation on Earth had suffered a complete loss of track or navigable roads, and in many areas at least some of the telegraphs wires remained or were repairable in short order. In short, the Martians had failed to completely isolate large pockets of humanity still holding on to life by a thin measure, so we continued to stand as one species upon the Earth, needing each other, and, united as never before in human history if only by our fear and hatred of all things Martian. It would prove to be a strong yet fleeting bond.

            With so much track destroyed many areas would need to rely upon an older system of transportation which had recently gone out of general use, at least for the movement of large quantities of goods. It was a system well known to the Martians – canals! For the most part nearly all of the world’s canals in Europe, the United States, China and many other areas were still very much as they had been before the war. It was later theorized the canal building Martians had left these waterways intact for their own use after they had completed their bloody work of conquest. There were even a few reports, never verified, that the Martians had begun transporting equipment, and most disturbing, captured humans for ‘consumption,’ on some of the smaller canals just before the end of the war. I for one would not have been surprised to have witnessed these activities even as no ‘survivor reports’ were ever found. What a strange sight it would have been. Of the world’s pre-war forestlands, estimated at the end of the past century to have been around 15 billion acres, it was thought that some seven billion acres had been lost to a series of massive fires set by the Martian war machines. Many of these fires would burn for weeks, some for months. At first we did not understand why they would attack the forests. It seemed a waste of effort and war making resources considering their overall objectives. Only later would we come to understand this destruction was also part of an elaborate plan to capture a planet, which most suited their needs. They needed a cooler world to live on and destroying the forests was part of that long-term plan. Along with the damage came the destruction of 30% of the world’s farmlands. The Red Weed they had spread over much of our farmlands as they moved in battle formation had by now died off, but in its wake millions of acres were now left as sterile deserts. The Red Weed had killed all vegetation in these areas before it too fell to Earth’s bacteria. The residue it left could still cause great harm. It would take many years and great effort to recover many of these fields of grain.

AN ANOMALY

Then there was the anomaly in Egypt. Strangely it seemed at first, as we did not fully understand the significance at the time, one city was never attacked during the First Martian War. Other towns and small villages in the nearby area also suffered little damage especially as compared to the rest of the world’s major population centers. Witnesses had reported that the city had not only been over flown several times by Martian machines in full formation, but Martian ground machines had “walked through” and fired not a single burst from their Heat-Rays – Cairo! What had they seen that caused them to spare this ancient city of heat and sand?

Only Cairo for the most part would stand after, as it had before the war, and we had to find out why. It would take a team of Egyptologists, archeologists and historians many years to provide the terrifying answer that we honestly did not want to learn. Cairo, which still holds within its outskirts the hot desert grasp of the great pyramids, was originally named El-Kahira. El-Kahira comes from the Arabic El-Kahir – Mars! In fact, the recorded history of man’s observations of Mars dates back to the ancient Egyptians. Since the earliest days primitive man had been fascinated by and tracked the stars and planets – the home of the gods. Later, after viewing Egyptian records, Babylonian astronomers would record detailed observations of Mars’ movements across the darkened night skies.

We came to understand the Martians had not attacked Cairo because that ancient city of burning sands and deep mystery had once played host to Martians in a time seemingly long forgotten by humans. Clearly the Martians had remembered the city because Cairo it seemed had once been a Martian city (Ref: Martian Electric Document 02Y16)!*

* Martian Electric Documents were

* Martian Electric Documents were filed first by the number of the machine or device the record had been located, such as machine number 02. The next letter designated the location on Earth the machine had been discovered. Y for example was located in Brazil. The final two or three numbers were simply the order in which the so-called electric files were placed into the Martian records within the electric document. These Martian electric files proved to be a gold mine of information about all things Martian. For whatever reason the Martians had brought with their invasion forces a detailed electric history of their time on Mars as well as their culture and development. They also held many records of their long history of contact with Earth.

Now we were asking: Had these ancient humans worshipped them? And even if they did how could they ever hope to understand the complicated motivation of a species from another world, another civilization, thousands of years in advance of their own? How were they to communicate beyond the simplest ways? One researcher perhaps had the answer: the universal language of mathematics! With much effort we would labor to discover many of the secrets deeply held in those hot desert sands. One of my concerns was whether or not these Martians had interfered with the development of ancient humans before written history. And if they did, what damage had they been able to accomplish?

From my later notes: “Were they responsible for the pyramids and what, if anything was there still inside them waiting for the Martians or us to retrieve? When things calm down we must look into this.”

In other areas, where humanity still stood, albeit weakly, the stench of death hung deeply upon the raped lands for months. Indeed, it would be the smell of death which would most lingers in the minds of the survivors. In later years when one heard a scream someone more often than not had picked up a smell that was terrifyingly familiar. For others it was simply far too much to bear as many took their own lives. For those it had all been too much to understand and accept. That terror of the unknown – that darkness of the night – is indeed instinctive to man and part of humanity’s primal makeup. Panic would strike unreasonably no matter where on Earth the Martians first landed. All soon came to understand that no matter where they lived sooner or later their time would come and they would be forced to face the deadly Martian machines. After the fight, people, dazed and hungry, wondered around once populated areas before being gathered up as sheep to crudely built tent as well as wooden and broken stone shelters. Hell had surely made a stand upon the face of the Earth yet this was no biblical fiction. Dead bodies ravaged by scavengers were everywhere. There was much as a result of panic. There were too many stories of men and women simply running until they sank down in despair not knowing where to run or why. Surely no measure of Hell imagined in the minds of mortal man could have been as complete.

In many areas across the world populations, facing starvation due to the complete breakdown of transportation or the lack of local grains began eating dogs and cats or even rats to stay alive. Murder of the weak or sick for food was not uncommon in some outlying areas. There were even reports out of central Asia of adults eating their children! In the northern areas of Manchuria and Korea tree bark became a stable for months. Manure also became a source of nutrition in central Europe. In some areas the only local food was grass or weeds. Old leather was being boiled for soup and eaten in small pieces. Any bird within grasp would soon become a quick meal.

However, even amongst such utter despair and complete destruction small businesses soon sprang up in some areas as a semblance of order came, but to be sure it was a rough order even as flags and banners began to be seen in some populated areas. Many of us still remember the homespun manufacturing of small trade goods such as cloth, candles, shoes and other small items that would soon make their way to street venders. “The Collectors”; I remember them, no more than looters really, began to barter for all manner of goods and “services.” I remember that brick collectors especially seemed to be everywhere in many cities attempting to gain the materials for the construction they hoped would soon be underway. These newly cleared streets gave the impression of almost working towns and cities, but they were mere skeletons of themselves, only the transient shadows and fleeting ghosts of once great human endeavors. All around one could find any number of crude structures thrown together to afford some measure of cover from the elements along with military units putting up tent cities where ground had been cleared. Very soon when some kind of local control could be established rationing of any and all foods would be the rule lasting for years to come. Rivers and other waterways soon become the new roads of a destroyed world as survivors struggled to rebuild their lives and livelihoods.

Around the world many small surviving communities became nearly fully self-sufficient, reminiscent of times gone by. Just about everything from furniture, shoes, farm equipment, coal and just about every food source became a local commodity. With banking systems nonexistent, many of these communities printed local script to be exchanged for local goods and services. Later, when government returned to these areas more often than not the script could be exchanged for Committee notes (issued for only 12 months) and later turned in for national currencies.

In many areas where surviving members of the International Red Cross were able to organize themselves, at least locally, members were setting up tents taken from their few surviving emergency warehouses. Supplies were being transported by whatever conveyance could be found. At times horse drawn carts filled the cleared streets where there were cleared streets. Red Cross members were soon handing out food, water, clothes and small tents to as many people as they could, knowing their supplies could not last long. These would need to be guarded as would the few available horses as many where slaughtered for such meat as could be gained. They could never have anticipated this great a disaster on such a global scale, and neither could anyone else. One volunteer would later tell me, “We will do whatever we can for as long as possible, but without any re-supply there is only so much anyone can do.” There was no place from which re-supply could be obtained. There were pressing needs for just about everything one could imagine. Military guards were at times necessary to keep as much local order as possible. Medical supplies were also given out by surviving doctors and nurses. On more than one occasion it was reported that the only medical help available came from medical students doing the best they could with what they had. These students and Red Cross members were the first true heroes of those long, dark desperate early days. Traumatic injuries, which could in better times be cared for, took many lives. In many cases a broken arm or leg was tantamount to a death penalty. Countless people died for no other reason than they had simply given up. It had all been far too much for many.

For the most part disorder ruled those desperate days as an unknown fear ruled the long dark nights. Or perhaps it was not really unknown as all that needed to be said was “Martian”! One man would state as he looked upon his devastated world, “Why are these things permitted? …I was walking through the roads to clear my brain for the afternoon, and then fire, earthquake, death! As if it was Sodom and Gomorrah. What sins have we done? All our work undone, all the work – What are these Martians?”

Indeed, many would ask: What are these Martians? There would be no ready answer; no easy explanation to give to the survivors. After all, humanity had not been given the opportunity to debate the issue and discuss the sociological pros and cons of contact with off-world beings before ‘contact’ was made. That issue had been decided for us without so much as an introduction or even a declaration of war. The Martians had simply landed upon our planet and forced those who survived on Earth to learn what extra-terrestrial really meant as they taught mankind a bloody lesson in humility. We had been shown that we mighty men of Earth, we masters of all we survey, were in fact only temporary inhabitants of a tiny planet, in orbit about an average star, circling around an average spiral galaxy, in an outer spiral arm of that “island universe”, of which we would later learn our Milky Way is but one of billions of galaxies in all of space and time. We had no special place in the universe, and that was a shock to many even though it should not have been to a more thoughtful individual. As for the Martians – they had simply come uninvited to our lands to kill and take what they could from the beings that had stood weakly in their path. It was kill or be killed all over the Earth as the Martians commanded the high end of that discourse at least for a few weeks in the fall of 1901. The war I remembered seemed much longer than that. The mind plays its little tricks. Years later one well-known historian would look back upon these desperate times and write of the destroyed world and the calamity which had come as a flash of lightening to our species.

We now realize man’s dominance of Earth is at best tenuous, and humanities’ lightly held grip holds no guarantee it will continue. In order for mankind to remain superior on this planet, guided by our local star and held in the ethereal gulf of solar space, we had learned that the people of Earth needed to be ready to fight for the right to hold on to this tiny planetary beachhead we humans call home. If necessary we would need to fight individually and then as a united planet simply to stay alive.

BLISS BEFORE THE WAR

As humanity pressed on with numbed minds we occasionally moved from this grim new reality to things of old including literature from a much earlier time, seemingly a lifetime ago, yet amazingly only weeks past. I for one had sat at my favorite coffee shop reading only weeks earlier, blissful in my ignorance of off world events. Or was I making notes for a new book or an article – it is hard to remember such simple delights of times past. The best seller before the war had been Mary Johnston’s To Have and to Hold. Indeed, there was much to read and enjoy in “the old days”. However, in the darkened rubble it no longer seemed appropriate to read or even discuss Garrett P. Serviss’s delightful fiction Edison’s Conquest of Mars (a great favorite of Dr. Robert Goddard of future rocket fame), written in 1898 or George Griffith’s A Honeymoon in Space published in 1900 in which he describes what he called the many magnificent works of Martian labor. Theodore Fluornoy’s From India to the Planet Mars also from 1900 in which a young Indian woman travels to Mars and gives a grand description of a wonderful civilization with breathtaking landscapes on Mars soon found no readers for his well crafted work of fiction. I remember reading such fiction or was it only an ancient fable that Eden had ‘actually’ been near the North Pole of Mars. Another tall tale situated that fictional paradise rather near the Martian equator. But where then may men discover our Eve? And why did these ancestors place Eden on Mars? Facts and desperate events on Earth would soon overtake such fiction as these.

            I must admit my thoughts did not normally turn to subjects beyond our world as with anyone there was much work to complete. But when I was able to find a quiet place to contemplate what was thought to be the universe I remember thinking I would have been truly shocked if mankind was able to discover that our planet was the only one which held a species capable of asking such questions. How lonely it would be to have no others to relate to.

Perhaps the last great work of fiction to cross our collective minds before the war was H. G. Wells’ The First Men in the Moon. My copy is well worn as it became an early escape from the realities of my new world. Yet, it would be years before most would be ready to take a real hard look at our only natural satellite. Reality I am afraid was just too horrific to pause for light reading about Martians and moon men so these fine works were soon forgotten. Perhaps it was for the best now that the war was over. We had other things on our minds. There was much to do and so little time to do it.

            Before the Martians came many would take an evening off to see the latest play by George Bernard Shaw You Never Can Tell or sing along to A Bird in a Gilded Cage. Eric Wise (better known as Harry Houdini) was on tour of Europe and the United States amazing audiences with his marvelous escapes, yet even with his singular skills he, along with millions of others, was unable to escape the Martians. By 1900 ragtime music had become all the rage. There were Gibson girls and brightly lit music halls to help pass a pleasant evening’s delight. A year earlier, Scott Joplin had introduced the world to a new sound with his Maple Leaf Rag. We were all dancing the Camel Walk, the Cake Walk and the Monkey Glide. We were remembering the 1900 Olympics held in Paris that year where 1,330 athletes from 22 nations had attended. France would win the most medals at 102 including 29 gold. It would be sometime before we would once again be able to play Olympic Games such as golf, cricket, croquet and tug-of-war, or even purchase a new Brownie camera costing one American dollar before the war, the ‘Kodak’. It had been to Paris where the Paris Exposition had shocked visitors with the display of “non-Victorian” nude statues by French sculpture Rodin. It had also been the first public demonstration of a fascinating new device called a “tape recorder.” Much was new and exciting in this “New age of mankind”. At the time half the world’s great ocean liners were being built in Great Britain. These resources would be greatly needed after the Martians ‘departed’.

Many of the ‘advanced’ nations of the world were transforming their societies from a traditional agrarian-rural one into an urban society of much industrialization. The Martians had done nothing to stem this tide.

Internal combustion vehicles were on their way up. In America the people had been told their nation held some 8000 horseless carriages (auto-mobiles) and in the future many thousands more of those noisy, smoky contraptions could be expected to “flood the roads” (There had only been four in America in 1895). Very few truly thought that would ever happen. Although there were those who did despair of such possibilities, I recall one man writing; “The motor-cars that went by northward and southward grew more and more powerful and efficient, whizzed faster and smelt worse; there appeared great clangorous petrol trolleys delivering coal and parcels in the place of vanishing horse-vans; motor-omnibuses ousted the horse-omnibuses, even the Kentish strawberries going Londonward in the night took to machinery and clattered instead of creaking, and became affected in flavor by progress and petrol.” Steam conveyances were being replaced by electric trams for the masses in ‘modern’ cities.

Late evening rides in Hansen cabs simply for pleasure were gone now as were the coffee shops and storefronts we had come to rely upon for our simple needs. I remember a loaf of bread had cost 3 cents, a gallon of milk was 10 cents and a gallon of gas could be purchased for as little as 4 cents. It was also a time when the “upper class” expected the so-called lower and middle classes to “know their place.” Many areas in society were class ridden. Very soon there would be much fewer areas for anyone to put their noises out of place!

In Russia an unknown dissident named Vladimir Ilyich dressed in a shabby waistcoat was calling for a worker’s revolution. Very few at the time were ready to follow him. Later that would change, and not for the better, as the ill winds of a new man-made war blew across much of a still recovering world. He would become one of the world’s most infamous mass murderers well beyond the pitiful efforts of old London’s Jack the Ripper.

            On 8 September 1900 a massive hurricane of tremendous power and scope struck the American coast at Galveston, Texas, with 120 mile per hour winds. This storm would be marked in American lore at the time as the worst natural disaster in that nation’s history. The storm took the lives of some 6000 residents and caused $20 million in property damage. Yet this storm, thought to have been so grave in the minds of those who were affected in so many ways, as it should have been, paled in comparison to the “Martian storm” which would crash upon our planetary shore a few months later.

            It was also in 1900 that great thinkers such as Sigmund Freud and Max Planck were at work, both of whom were to survive this fast approaching planetary holocaust. It would be Planck (truly the world’s first quantum physicist) who gave us his new theory of quantum mechanics; a new method proposed to explain how electromagnetic radiation worked which lead the way to modern physics in the new twentieth century and the study of such tiny particles (quanta) of matter and energy and of how atoms worked. At the same time Dr. Freud published his great work The Interpretation of Dreams in which he described his reasons for believing that dreams were the windows to our unconscious minds and how we all viewed the world around us. He would later become known for dissecting the Martian mind. It was no small feat for a ‘mire human!’ Within a year both men would find themselves working with a new group of men from many nations determined to put the world back into some type of order and control.             It crosses my mind it was early 1901 that Austrian doctor Karl Landsteiner was first able to explain there were at least three different types of human blood. The Martians had surely tasted all three. He would name them A, B and O. Medical advances would be held back for some time now thanks to the war. In that same year Mr. Wells would publish an original work titled An Experiment in Prophecy in which he wrote of his vision for the world’s future in the year 2000. In this work he saw more and faster motor cars, faster more efficient trains, and the decline of military adventurism. His work is noted not only for what he saw, but for what he failed to see which included submarines, successful flying machines, a bloody new war on ourselves and of course – Martians! He would soon remedy his flawed thinking about things Martian.

[END PART 1]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 2: Some historic perspectives in what we failed to see.]

Special Credit: Photographer by Peter Ivey-Hansen, “Intruder Aboard” by Darren-Curtis, “A Few Jumps Away” by Arthur Vyncke

Thank you music producers; and photographer for allowing Mads&Tulle to air/display your brilliant endeavors for our premiere. C. Reid.