[PART 74]

ANOTHER AFTERMATH

The Aftermath of the Second Martian War

We had won; rather Planet Earth had won. So now what do we do?

DEVASTATION

When the fighting ended and the sounds of that terrible war now only a dull ringing in our ears had subsided what was to be done? Utter devastation had once again become our lot. As before vast areas of our fragile planet lay in waste, yet somehow for those of us who had endured both of these interplanetary wars something seemed different. Yes, it had been terrible with much lost, but we had dug deeply into the Earth, and hidden much from the deadly Martians. Much had been saved, a good deal more than had been saved during the first Martian War. Indeed much more than I would have expected.

It is true that nothing can replace those millions who had fallen, but we could now realize that twice the bloody Martians had come with all they had to destroy our world and all who lived here and twice they had been defeated. We had proven that humans along with other forms of life on Earth were stronger than the Martians. Despite the horrible losses we had proven to the Martians that this planet will never go down without a fight and we will never surrender no matter the cost, and make no mistake the costs had been very high.

No caption needed!

In this new aftermath we could not dwell in the past; that was not an option if we wanted to survive. We would look once again to the future and mankind would rebuild a whole new world. But this time we would begin not from a burning pile of rubble alone even though much of Earth did indeed lie in ruin. We were much stronger and wiser now. We have a much deeper technology to build from and we had other worlds to see.

This time as we build towards a new tomorrow we also look at that red planet across the vastness of space and begin to see ways for the men of Earth to bring to the Martians the same type of devastation to their world that they have brought to ours – twice! We build now not just to defend our world but to eventually find the means to destroy theirs even as we cared for the remnants of a defeated enemy.

MARTIAN PRISONER OF WAR CAMPS – ANTARCTICA

What does one do with 432 Martian A and 140 Martian B prisoners of war? The only options which came to mind first were to kill them all, which at the time really did seem like the best option, or hold them as prisoners of war and possibly use them as a future bargaining chip with the Martians in exchange for the humans known to still be held on Mars. Upon further discussion we decided to hold them, but not in any standard prisoner of war camp. It was decided to follow through with the Martian Antarctica option without any input from the Martians themselves. After all they had not “consulted Earth” before invading our planet twice so why would we consult them for the disposition of their “people.”

The practical aspect of housing them in Antarctica was to show the Martians that we humans did not execute captured Martians and that we were still willing to craft a place on Earth for them to live, if and when they decided to take us up on the offer. In other words humans are beings of honor and we keep our word. This information was transmitted to Mars as was a re-transmission of the peace plan which had been radioed to them before the Second Martian War and of course ignored by them.

The two original surviving POs and the 24 new ones were to be delivered to the Martians in the Antarctic along with 1241 condemned murderers in chains (for Martian food). We would continue to deliver brutal human murderers and rapists to their deaths at the ‘hands’ of the Martians as well as others who had betrayed our planet to them. The Martians still ‘dined’ on human flesh. That was not likely to change so at least for a while this very controversial policy was a win-win. They got a ‘meal’ and humanity cleaned out some very nasty and brutal humans. In the long term of course we needed to find a much better method of feeding these creatures.

Messages to the Martians being tracked and still in orbit around the Earth were sent, instructing them to land and take possession of a designated section of Antarctica. Instead of answering, the remaining 118 Martian spacecraft being tracked by Earth radars simply left Earth orbit one at a time and headed back to Mars. It was clear the Martians had once again decided that it would be all or nothing for planet Earth. They were not interested in living peacefully on a planet which also held humans. They had not even asked for the Martian prisoners we held in Antarctica.

KILL ALL HYBRIDS

“The great fear today is that humans will in some short thousands of years become the Martians.”
Edited from news sheet

It would seem that once the terror of the invading Martians had abated to the point that Earth’s forces along with our insect and animal allies were beginning to overcome the Martians, humans began looking with disdain towards the hybrids that had caused such harm as well as such good on Earth. There was no distinction made between those who had fought for the Martians and those who had done so much to defend ‘our’ Earth.

Civilians in the outlying areas were the first to find and execute any and all Martians as well as any hybrids they could get their hands on. At times even “full humans” were killed by mobs that had mistaken them for hybrids for one reason or another. This was simply murder, but there was little in the way of local world governments to stop the slaughter in these areas – the Martians had seen to that. In the fog of war military authorities were late to discover such atrocities and the once again reconstituted national governments learned of such activities usually only after most, if not all hybrids in their devastated countries, had been killed. The few who remained were soon constantly on the move, hiding during the day and moving only at night, always looking for food and shelter – but it was a lost cause. It is estimated that by the end of October 1938 as the war was coming to an end the 2,000 hybrids thought to have arrived on Earth with the Martians after the First Martian War could count among themselves as few as 20 world-wide. It would not be long before they were extinct, at least on Earth.

Powerful men, both in and outside of the Committee, had in the past been pushing for something of a self-imposed and very selective human breeding program. Hybrid reports and other studies had spurred on this thinking. With the Martian war still very much on their minds they began to think more openly about the prospect of such a program. Men such as H. G. Wells and Dr. Nicola Tesla were very much in the forefront of this type of thinking. When interviewed in 1937 Tesla would say much on the subject.

“Man’s new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct. Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.”

Dr. Tesla would report to the Magic Twelve after the war to plead for a whole new world order. “Out of this war a new world must be born, a world that would justify the sacrifices offered by humanity. This must be a world in which there shall be no exploration of the weak by the strong, of the good by the evil, where there will be no humiliation of poor by the violation of the rich; where the products of the intellect, science, and art will serve society for the betterment and beautification of life, and not the individuals for achieving wealth. This new world shall not be a world of the down trodden and humiliated, but of free men and free nations, equal in dignity and respect for man.”
There was still much that we had to learn.

NEW WORK TO BE DONE

As mankind looked once again at the problems which had been festering on Earth and looked away from Mars, re-constructed governments once again saw the possibilities of conflicts upon our Earth. Attempting to continue efforts, which had brought mankind together to defeat an interplanetary enemy, diplomats traveled to once again find common ground. At the end of 1938 one such trip found British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain traveling to Germany for a one-on-one with German Chancellor Hitler. He returned with a piece of paper and declared “peace in our time.” He later reported, “My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street [with] peace [and] with honor. And now I recommend you to go home and sleep quietly in your beds.”

Earth now looked towards peace and not war even as martial law held much of the planet and would do so for many years to come. Another great Earth bound war seems to have been averted. Hopefully we have all learned the lesson that “we must all hang together or we shall surely all hang alone.” My old friend Winston was not so sure.

Yes, the Martians had been defeated. And as I have recalled those creatures had thrown everything they possibly could at planet Earth in a desperate struggle to survive as a species and we as a planet had stood the test and defeated their mighty interplanetary armada. Now the only enemies to be found on Earth, at least for a while, were ourselves! (Excluding of course the Martian prisoners of war in Antarctica.) At this point we had to ask ourselves, as we peered once again over the devastation brought on by war and the brutality that man’s history has shown a question. Does human biological, technical and cultural progress ensure that man will evolve into a more civilized species or is it possible that in the end we ourselves will become the Martians? No one had an answer. Only time and mankind’s future abilities could provide the world with a true answer.

A NEW AGE OF ICE

The Earth was now cold and dim even on the brightest of days as the volcanoes attacked during the war continued to spew their gasses and devastated rock particles into an atmosphere greatly damaged during the war. This was added to the gasses and debris still being sent into the air by the massive fires still burning. Snow was not melting in many areas as it had for much of man’s time on Earth. Needless to say, the growing seasons around the world had become shortened, some no longer existed. Many would die from starvation.

As we strive to solve this and many other questions, scientists have recently confirmed that even though the Martians had lost the war on Earth their efforts to cool the planet have indeed been completely successful. Planet Earth is now orbiting slightly further away from our Sun due to the massive movements of the Earth’s crust and oceans caused by the first massive Martian attacks of the war and it is continuing to slowly move away from our local life giving star. No one knows just how far the orbit will expand. We do not possess the technological capabilities to correct the expanding orbit of our planet.

Snow storm near the coast of Orland Florida!

Overall temperatures of Earth’s atmosphere world-wide have dropped a full 2.5 degrees F in one year; the world’s oceans by about 1.5 degrees F. This information will not be shared with most of humanity for the time being, even though it will become obvious within a few short years, if it isn’t already with the now always darkened skies. Only by vastly increasing the levels of greenhouse gasses (mostly water vapor) into our atmosphere and increasing the amount of ocean bearing vegetation will we be able to slow the advance of permanent winter upon the Earth, but in the end we will not defeat the cold of this new reality. We will not have a summer this year in the north or for that matter another summer over most of the planet as long as anyone on Earth is alive as we are now beginning a rapidly advancing ice age.

The Martians had lost their planet even before mankind created civilization on Earth and humans had now lost their warm home before they could even venture into space. Perhaps this is what it felt like to be a Martian those thousands of years ago as they watched their planet slowly fail. We can only wonder and do our best to endure. For the Martians however, at least when their planet began to fail they could look out into solar space and see the possibilities of a new world closer to the Sun. On Earth we have no such view. For you see, Venus is far too hot and we cannot fly there, and no one would ever to go to Mars and live for long.

We will soon need to build domes over selected cities to survive on the surface of our planet, as the Martians had done thousands of years ago on the world they called “Mars Prime.” Once again we will rebuild our shattered world, as well as continuing to build massive new facilities underground which could very well be the only survivable places on Earth in the near future as we now plan to build a massive new system of covered canals for transportation of people and supplies and yes even water to ensure that supply will not freeze.

So this is our lot today in the year 1938 as humanity now moves inexorably towards that long cold dark night wondering if we could have done anything better to prevent our present situation as we brave ourselves for a very cold and very uncertain future. We had won the war for Earth against the brutal Martians that was certain, yet in this very victory have lost our warm and comfortable planet. Could it not then be said that it was the Martians who had won by fully transforming our planet into an eventual icy world not unlike their own? And when it is all but ice and dusty rocky plains will they once again view our world with envious eyes?

Such is our fate. As far as our future and our way of life are concerned we must face the fact that in so many ways we have indeed become the Martians!

In December of 1939 The Executive Committee of Twelve issued
their internal Most Secret Magic CoT Directorate Report
DR 10-46 Committee Notes: The Martians and the Second Martian War
To what end?

A Final Word from Mr. Wells

As he had after the First Martian War, Herbert Wells would report on his thoughts after the Second Martian War from his partially wreaked London home. The 72-year-old writer and long time member of the Executive Committee of Twelve addressed a top-secret gathering of the Committee in a small repaired section of Lower-London. His thoughts were not on the possible coming storm on Earth, but once again firmly focused on the heavens.

“A question of graver and universal interest is the possibility of another attack from the Martians. I do not think that nearly enough attention is being given to this aspect of the matter. Whether we expect another invasion or not, our views of the human future must be greatly modified by these events. We have learned [once again] that we cannot regard this planet as being fenced in and a secure abiding place for Man; we can never anticipate the unseen good or evil that may come upon us suddenly out of space. It may be that in the larger design of the universe this [latest] invasion from Mars is not without its ultimate benefit for men; it has robbed us of that serene confidence in the future which is the most fruitful source of decadence, the gifts to human science it has brought are enormous, and it has done much to promote the conception of the commonwealth of mankind. It may be that across the immensity of space the Martians have watched the fate of these invaders of theirs and learned their lesson, and that on the planet Venus they have found a securer settlement. Be that as it may, for many years yet there will certainly be no relaxation of the eager scrutiny of the Martian disk, and those fiery darts of the sky, the shooting stars, will bring with them as they fall an unavoidable apprehension to all the sons of men.”

Mr. Wells’ final thoughts to the Committee were of worlds to come and the time in the dim future of Earth when men from planet Earth will find that they too must leave the planet for a new and better home among the stars.

“Now we see further. If the Martians can reach Venus, [as we now know that they have], there is no reason to suppose that the thing is impossible for men, and when the slow cooling of the Sun makes this Earth uninhabitable, as at last it must do, it may be that the thread of life that has begun here will have streamed out and caught our sister planet within its toils.”

Writing from the rubble of the Second Martian War

[END PART 74]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[NEXT WEEK: PART 75: SOME FINAL THOUGHTS AND COMMITTEE REPORTS.]

[PART 73]

PLANET EARTH ATTACKS THE MARTIANS!

FIRST CAME THE INSECTS

In London we saw insects of every imaginable type coming out of the ground, out of trees and out of just about every area one could think of. At first terror came to our minds that the Martians had been responsible, but it soon passed as it was clear these insects were moving away from people. They were actually moving around people. I stood by with many others watching a thick matt of crawling insects move around my feet never touching me. They were moving by untold millions directly at the Martians! Those close enough to witness this amazing situation as I did were astounded to see these insects swarming over and completely covering the Martians and their machines even as they completely ignored humans standing right next to the Martians. Somehow these tiny creatures seemed to understand the difference – but how?

The screaming Martians soon abandoned their weapons and ran in every direction as they were stung, bitten and smothered by uncounted millions of insects. Insects which would normally have done battle against each other ignored their natural insect enemies. In every area of Lower-London insects were attacking the Martians. I had to get to the surface to see what was happening. When I made it to the surface an hour later I could see tens of thousands of birds of every description flying in dense flocks attacking the Martians and their machines. On the ground thousands of Martians were being covered by insects or birds or attacked by dogs and cats of all kinds. Every conceivable animal was on the attack including wave after wave of rats of all sizes covering the ground as far as I could see. Amazed I saw these rats ‘flow’ around and away from terrified people who had not known which way to run. Before long the people began to cheer these humble creatures as they devoured the invaders. The Martians were being ripped to pieces.

We soon got our radios operational again. Reports began to come in from world forces fighting desperate land battles with the Martians. Brazil was the first to be received. The jungle and plains fighting had been furious on both sides with Earth forces in the position of a fighting retreat deeper into the jungle areas at the time. Loses had been very heavy as units were being consolidated for a last ditch effort.

Radio operators then began to send clipped reports, not at all clear, of large swarms of bees in and around the battle lines, which seemed to be forming large masses of bees moving as one. Later messages expanded on these early reports indicating that “blankets of bees were now moving as one towards the Martian sickle line” of fighting machines. Not long after it was reported that several of the front line Martian machines were completely covered with bees to a point where very little metal could be seen. It was clear that the bees and wasps were attacking en-mass and the Martians were beginning to falter and fall back. As what had become standard for them they made no effort to retrieve their fallen comrades. Time and time again their lines were reformed with fresh machines. As they were formed the bees and other related flying insects massed upon their new front lines. Bees and wasps with stingers attacked the Martians. Bees without stingers went for the machine and any exposed entry point.

As the Martian machines dropped and the Martians attempted to crawl away their bodies were covered and consciously stung long after they were clearly dead. It almost seemed as if the angry bees were feeding off of the Martian flesh. In that regard the people closest to the bees quickly put together a series of sugar water drums in an effort to feed the bees and were soon in radio contact with individuals who had studied bees seeking ways to aid these insects. Time and time again swarms took on the energizing sugar and continued the attacks on the Martians. For the first time in all of our history man and insect were working as one! It was a fantastic sight.

Dead Martian hybrids after an insect attack in the South Pacific

Before long Earth forces in Brazil were reporting that they were advancing towards the Martian lines just behind the “waves of attacking bees.” Later investigations would show a remarkable fact that these swarms consisted of many different types of bees, some of which are known to be natural enemies of one another. Wasps were soon part of the insect attacks as well. It was almost as if the insects had set aside their natural animosities to unite in defense of their planet! Incredibly, as recalled above none of the bees or wasps attacked any human formations and seemed to know exactly where to go and who, or what to attack. How and why they attacked at this time has yet to be determined and will no doubt become a point of much examination and discussion for many years to come. It is generally thought that the constant hum of the Martian machines somehow irritated the bees, but this has not been confirmed. And it seems to be too simple an explanation. Some fanciful reports stated that the bees of Earth had somehow sensed a foe to their world and attacked a common enemy of themselves and mankind. It is left to the reader to decide which is the proper explanation.

Within days new reports came in almost exactly like the early reports from Brazil from areas as wide spread as Central America, Texas, South Africa, China, India and as far north as Alaska and northern Russia. In all of these areas, and indeed wherever Martians had invasion forces except for the far north and far south Polar Regions, masses of bees were killing Martians and felling their war machines. It was really becoming hard not to believe that all of the many species of bees and wasps found on Earth had indeed united to fight a common foe of this planet. The Martians had no defense against the sting of a bee or wasp. We would later learn that it took only a few (less than a dozen) stings from a bee to kill any Martian and yet they were hit by hundreds and at times thousands per Martian. It seemed to all who witnessed these incredible attacks that the bees particularly really wanted to kill the Martians. It had been well-known for years that some species of bees were known as killer bees, but even those were nowhere near as aggressive as the bees which attacked the Martians. The bees gave no quarter and never stopped attacking.

As radio reports were able to get through other reports of animals around the world attacking Martians continued to pour in. In the jungles of Africa lions and tigers had swarmed even as a battle front with other predators against the Martians. Across the plains of the United States massed herds of buffalo, wild horses, as well as domesticated cattle sent themselves headlong into Martian formations backed by millions of locus and tens of thousands of birds of all kinds. Those who witnesses these ‘coordinated attacks’ simply could not believe their eyes. It was not long before United States, Canadian and Committee military forces formed up behind these waves of animal attacks and joined them in pushing back the Martians.

Later we would receive reports of many sea creatures attacking the Martian ships even as the bloody battle around North New Zealand waged. Massive squids backed by every type of whale imaginable were ramming and attacking the Martians. However, clearly one of the most incredible attacks by sea creatures came on this day when the Martians began to land combat troops at New Zealand. Before the eyes of our astonished human forces, untold numbers of small whales, porpoises and dolphins began to overwhelm and overturn the Martian landing craft. As the Martians spilled into the waters off of New Zealand they were instantly attacked by thousands of sharks who literally tore them to pieces. To be clear sharks and dolphins, natural enemies fought a coordinated battle to devastate the Martians. Those few who somehow made their way to the bloody shore were immediately swarmed and completely covered by insects. None, none survived this attack.

Within hours across the entire planet Martian attacks ended. What we had witnesses had taken the measure of our, and by that I mean our entire planet, had taken the measure of our enemies from Mars and had defeated them on land, sea and in the air. Small groups of surviving Martians were soon taking off in their few remaining flying machines as surviving radars showed that those who could were heading back to Mars.

It had not been the efforts of mankind who had defeated the Martians, even thought we had done all that we as humans could to defeat these bloody invaders. We could be proud that we had not stood down to become slaves but had fought almost to the death of humanity. But it was fully understood by all that the fatal blows inflicted on the Martians had, once again, not come from the hand of man, but by humble creatures that had, for whatever reason or cause, fought together as one against an enemy who had tried by force to take THEIR planet. As before when word came that the Martians had been defeated church bells rang out across the globe. Horns rang out from every corner where humans still held sway.

It was not long before we were receiving numerous reports of ‘others’ hovering over these areas where attacking insects and animals swarmed. In every case the unidentified craft glowed red! These ‘others’ seemed to have finally taken sides, but no one could ever state that they had come into personal contact with whoever or whatever was operating these craft.

Mankind had been shown that we are not alone on this planet and needed to keep that in mind as we went about the work of once again recovering from the Aftermath of a War of the Worlds.

Central European city after the Second Martian War

[END PART 73]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[NEXT WEEK: PART 74: ANOTHER AFTERMATH.]