[PART 55]

The Martians Committee Field Notebook Number Four

1935-1938

THE SECOND MARTIAN WAR

Chapter Nine – 1936-August 1938

Earth Braces for Interplanetary War

Chapter Ten – September 1938

The Final Conflict for Supremacy on Earth

Chapter 9

1936-August 1938

Earth Braces for Interplanetary War

Testing the seismic device – Preparations for war with Mars – The Committee renegades – Radio interview with H. G. Wells – Large eruption on Mars – Earth offers peace – The Hindenburg ‘accident’ – Hybrid attack on the Empire State building – Earth launches ‘Defense One’ – Underground missile launch facilities – ‘Crystal Word’ – Phobos moved – I937 Flash on Mars – Radio dishes ready – Deception war/psychological operations – Tunguska project nears completion – Mass migration to the hinterland – 4 July 1938 – Earth’s final preparations.

Testing the Seismic Device

It had been a long time coming: nearly three decades of work of back engineering, building and testing time and time again, before we were ready to deploy our first “human made” seismic devices. Now we needed a test-site far enough away from any populated areas so as not to do ourselves any real damage. We needed a strato-volcano with an active lava lake at its crater summit and one with a recent history of eruptions that we could use as a base of information to gage our results against natural events. It did not take us long to decide that an active volcano named Mount Erebus in Antarctica would make the ideal test-site for our new seismic weapon. As far as I was concerned if we happen to “take out” a few Martians while we were at it – well then all the better.

Scientists had originally become aware of Mount Erebus’s activity in 1841 when an eruption was sighted by several whaling ships passing Antarctica. Several explosive eruptions have occurred since 1841 all of which have been studied for volume of material and violence of the eruptive event. The lava lake when the seismic test was started was nearly 300 feet in diameter. When we finished it would be a great deal larger for this volcano, which happens to be the world’s most southern active strato-volcano. We were about to increase its activity at least over the short term.

Tesla explained the principles behind the new device to members of the Committee during an evening at our Lower-New York City Headquarters. “Earth’s vibrations have a periodicity. That is to say, if I strike the Earth this instant, a wave of contraction goes through it that will come back in one hour and forty-nine minutes in the form of expansion. As a matter of fact, the Earth, like everything else, is in a constant state of vibration. It is constantly contracting and expanding. Now suppose that at the precise moment when it began to contract, I explode a ton of dynamite. That accelerates the contraction and, in one hour and forty-nine minutes, there comes an equally accelerated wave of expansion. When the wave of expansion ebbs, suppose I explode another ton of dynamite thus further increasing the wave of contraction. And, suppose this performance be repeated, time after time. Is there any doubt as to what would happen? There is no doubt in my mind. The Earth would be split in two. For the first time in man’s history, he has the knowledge with which he may interfere with cosmic processes!”

Dr. Tesla was quick to point out that it would take months to years to “split the Earth”, but in only weeks he could do severe damage to the Earth’s crust. The Committee members were to say the least shocked to hear this news knowing how far advanced the Martians were. He assured the group that although the principle was quiet sound it would eventually fail on a planetary scale due to the imperfect resonance of the Earth. It could only be used in local areas, about the size of a large city, and was best deployed using a high energy electrical source instead of dynamite. For some reason that did not give great comfort to the members.

Taking the Martian plan to heart, it seemed that placing three of the devices in a triangular pattern around the target volcano at a distance of no greater than four miles from the caldaria was thought to give the best results. This had been the pattern of deployment used by the Martians and we had seen the results they had achieved. We would therefore begin our tests at that point.

We very well knew that this little test could be somewhat more dangerous than a simple journey to the always dangerous Antarctica. We had to mount the effort with a full military escort in the event any Martians just happened to be in the area. Clearly this was not an area fully controlled by the men of Earth. This was hostile territory in every sense of the word and we had to be ready for anything that may occur. This time the Antarctic team would be led by Australian Marines who had been training for some time in icy conditions.

Earlier in order to perform a small test of the new devices Dr. Tesla came out of his office in Lower-New York City one afternoon. Finding a suitable “test subject” he placed one of the devices on the side of a building under construction and stood back to watch. He later reported the results to the Committee. “In a few minutes I could feel the beam trembling. Gradually the trembling increased in intensity and extended throughout the whole great mass of steel. Finally, the structure began to creak and weave, and the steelworkers came to the ground panic-stricken, believing that there had been an earthquake. Rumors spread that the building was about to fall, and the police reserves were called out. Before anything serious happened, I took off the vibrator, put it in my pocket, and went away. But if I had kept on ten minutes more, I could have laid that building flat in the street. And, with the same vibration, I could drop Brooklyn Bridge (recently rebuilt after the war) in less than an hour.”

There was a good deal of excitement at the Committee, but the statement most heard at the meeting was that we were “glad Dr. Tesla is on our side!”

The Committee members were quite amused to learn that several officers from the Upper-New York City police department having learned about the “little test” visited Dr. Tesla in his underground apartment. They did not know that he was one of the Magic Twelve. What they did seem to understand was that he was somehow responsible for a seismic event. Dr. Tesla, cool as ever reported how he met the situation and disposed of the police officer inquires.

Gentlemen, I am sorry, you are just a trifle too late to witness my experiment. I found it necessary to stop it suddenly and unexpectedly and in an unusual way. However, if you will come around this evening I will have another oscillator attached to this platform and each of you can stand on it. You will, I am sure, find it a most interesting and pleasurable experience. Now you must leave, for I have many things to do. Good day, gentlemen.

Later that day one of the security team members paid a visit to the police station to “explain” to the captain that the late evening visit would not be necessary and that “there would be no need to further inquire about Committee business!” Nothing to see here.

THE MOUNT EREBUS TEST

Once again we were making our way to Antarctica. We knew of course that we were sending in another team which could very well make some type of contact with the Martians however, this test was critical to our defense plans so it would go forward as planned. Antarctica was becoming familiar territory for those who worked for the Committee. Mt. Erebus, which hugs the peninsular coast east of the Ross Ice Sheet is on the edge of the Ross Sea which was the team’s pathway to the volcano. On 14 February 1936 the team set out from our Australian Headquarters sailing with two ice cutters and two battleships. The battleships would follow the ice cutters and if need be would engage any enemy forces that happen to be in the area. There were also three submarines in the group. With the team in place, including Dr. Tesla manning the bridge on the Battleship RAS City of Perth a radio signal was sent to the three jets standing by to deliver their devices. The Martians had been seen to drop their devices in threes from a single craft however, for this test our jets would drop one each and then pull away as air cover for the rest of the operation. They were also tasked to photograph the results – if any. The devices were to be dropped on the south, east and western sides of the volcano approximately three miles in each direction from the base of the target.

Fifteen minutes after the radio call to the jets which had been in a holding position north of the test site the team spotted them coming in low directly at the target. With cameras rolling on both battleships the jets split up into a wide triangle formation which had been practiced for weeks. Counting down to zero the lead pilot radioed “Drop” and almost as one the three jets dropped what looked like small tube-like devices with metal tips. They almost looked like fat spears from a distance and in fact that was about what they were. The speed of the fall and the weight of the devices were such that on impacting solid ground the seismic devices would penetrate some 25 to 30 feet. On hard rock tests showed that they could still penetrate at least six feet which was just enough to make good contact with the target area.

From what could be seen by the observation groups the run went well. Dr. Tesla viewing the ‘bomb run’ with binoculars would only say, “Now we wait – but I don’t think it will be for long.”

True to his prediction it was only a matter of minutes before our instruments began to detect harmonic rumblings emanating from shallow depth focused beneath the volcano. Minutes after the first vibrations the eruption began and it was spectacular. At first a tight steam cloud with some gray ash began to vent from the summit rising thousands of feet above the volcano into the atmosphere. Then suddenly we heard several loud reports like cannon fire as much more ash and smoke began to erupt from the caldera of Mount Erebus. The largest blast in that series took the top off the volcano in a blinding flash that rocked the area. It was the loudest sound I have ever heard and the blast was heard all along the southern coast of Australia and New Zealand. As ash began to fall on our ships we turned around and got out of the area as fast as steam could take us. As we headed north we were able to see huge slices of the ice fields caving off and falling into Ross Sea before the ash fall closed off our view of the spectacular events unfolding at Mount Erebus.

For the next several hours blast after blast sent columns of ash and pyroclastics into the sky rising to at least 40,000 feet. Within an hour of the first eruptive event magma was poring over the mountain which would eventually reach all the way to the north shore and cause a column of steam to rise out of the frozen sea.

In total the eruption lasted a little more than three weeks and was declared a complete success. We had been able to duplicate the same geologic effect that had been perfected by the Martians centuries ago. Now the only question remaining was: Would we ever find a Martian target on which this new technology could be employed? No one believed we could send the device to Mars any time in the new future so any potential target would have to be an area on Earth occupied by the Martians!

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Committee Report (TS) 36-04 – Mars’ moon Phobos, 15 July 1936, 8:04 a.m.

It has been definitely established that the ‘moon’ Phobos is not a natural satellite of the planet Mars. The object is an artificial satellite, probably a massive orbital spacecraft. There is a good possibly that the Martians will attempt to move Phobos from Mars orbit to Earth orbit in the event of open hostilities as a possible command center.

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Preparations for War with Mars

THE ‘CIVILIAN’ SIDE

Much of the work of military preparation for war with the Martians focused on the vast civilian infrastructure developed around the world since 1901. With this in mind and in close working relation with national leaders the Committee began to consolidate organizations with direct control over many of these critical civilian resources. One example would be our over-site of the 15,000 plus independent rail companies operating around the world. The Committee Railroad Administration was soon merging (on paper at the time, to be put into operation in the event of planetary conflict) all of these privately and nationally owned companies into a single world-wide organization with centralized control held in seven strategic locations regardless of national borders with the noted exceptions of the Lawless Zones and the Soviet Union. The ability to move vast amounts of men and material over these now mostly linked rail systems needed to be closely organized in order to place this world resource at its maximum capacity when needed at critical times in the near future. It was not lost on anyone that most, if not all of these rail movements planned in support of anti-Martian activities would need to be completed before the outbreak of any major Martian hostilities.

Along with the Railway Administration came the closely linked Food and Fuel Administration. Even though it had been policy for many years for most national governments to store vast amounts of food and fuel in thousands of mostly underground facilities the Committee took it upon itself to establish a world system for the distribution of these critical items in the event of hostilities expected to open up with the Martians. For the most part however, history would show that most local governments would remain in control of these critical resources due to the fact that moving any large amount of food or fuel on rail or open roads would have made for very easy targets for the Martians in a shooting war. In the end for the most part this was going to be a local come as you are situation for most of the people of Earth.

It was at this point in our gearing up that reserve military units around the world, manned mostly by civilians who had been training on weekends for years, were put on “partial” full-time duty. Most of these unit headquarters were now manned 24 hours a day by skeleton forces amounting to ten percent of unit strength. Drills as they were known were increased to one week per month of active duty as well as duty every other weekend. Training went across the board from small arms instruction to medical/first aid training, radio, map work and small unit tactics. Needless to say, training also included combat patrols wearing protective gas masks.

This was the first time these reserve units would be assigned to active front line units as well as some units being given assignments to defend specific areas including entrances to cities and other underground facilities, stay behind assignments and defense of open as well as closed underground shelters. Because these were local reserve units and as such well acquainted with their own local areas many of the newly formed stay behind intelligence units were manned by these forces as so-called ‘pathfinders’.

Plans were also activated for the final supply of fresh emergency medical items to virtually every underground hospital in every underground city on Earth. All manner of equipment were moving on ships, planes and trains from manufacturing facilities around the world in a massive final effort to pack in as much as could be held and stored at these hospitals and medical clinics in preparation for war. Everything from full surgical team equipment and blood supplies to the smallest item to cover wounds were moving in this final push. Medical and surgical teams – long training for this massive deployment – were also on the move reporting to and setting up their assigned facilities. These teams would spend several weeks at their designated assignments preparing for the work ahead before beginning their rotations of two months on and two months off. If war came they would be fully staffed for the duration – or at least as long as it was feasible for them to stay at their designated assignments.

THE MILITARY SIDE

On the military side of the equation Committee and National forces began preplanned deployment of half of their aircraft carriers fully manned and armed for war. Many of the ships now carried the new Whitehead fighter jets as well as prop-driven fighters and bombers. We could also count some 122 Phoenix II fighters based on carriers with another 148 deployed world-wide from land-based facilities. Five each were based in Lower-New York City, Lower-London, Lower-Upolu, Lower-Sydney and four other underground cities. Each of these could be launched from short underground runways fully covered and express launched by rocket assist pods similar to carrier launches.

We were now able to deploy 156 rebuilt Martian Walkers in 15 strategic locations around the world in teams of ten. Deployment was based on Martian tactical movements during the First Martian War as well as critical developed strong points built after the war. They would fight from New London, Manchester, Paris, Munich, Moscow, New York City, New Washington Center, Chicago, Panama City, Montreal, Nanking China, Rosario Argentina, Johannesburg Southern Africa, Sydney and Cairo. None of these machines would be expected to fight alone as they were deployed alongside active infantry or armored units. This would be a team effort. Six of the rebuilt machines were to be held in reserve in three teams of two as stay behind forces attached to special forces units located near Montreal, Johannesburg and Beijing. It was essential that our stay behind forces be able to present a strong attack capability if only in limited areas. We needed to be able to inflict maximum damage to the limited Martian forces able to attack Earth from as many areas and angles as we could possibly deploy. In other words we needed to wear them down for as long and as hard as we could.

Final deployment of well over 8000 new television monitors was also well underway. Monitory stations, mostly underground, were beginning to be manned but not as yet on a full-time basis. Nevertheless, the machines, small power sources, cables to the stations and radio/cable communication networks were better than 90% complete and were expected to be fully operational within six months.

In the middle of all this effort a problem developed at one of our primary rocket launch facilities.

The Committee Renegades

I suppose those in authority should have anticipated, or at least suspected, that a group like the Renegades could come into being at some point. After all we all knew the very survival of the human species was at stake and not all who knew what was really happening with the Martians could be expected to simply go along with orders and plans approved by the Executive Committee of Twelve. Nevertheless, it came as quite a shock to learn that one of our new rocket launching facilities, the one along the east coast of Florida at Canaveral, had been overrun by renegade United States and British military forces hell bent on launching the deadly bacterial missile to Mars. At the time of the attack the rocket had been fully prepared for launch but the bacterial ‘package’ had not been loaded on the rocket. It was however housed very near at the launch site.

When we realized that the new facility had been taken by forces led by General Jonathon Davis we naturally made every effort to bring the base back under nominal control of the United States government as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the bloody battle to take the base ended only after the missile had been launched. We had been too late to stop the launch. Even a desperate attempt to intercept the missile by two Phoenix II fighter aircraft failed as it rocketed into a low orbit around the Earth.

Backed into a corner by the renegades we now needed to address the Martian notification issue. The question was: Do we simply let the deadly package continue on its way to Mars, send a radio signal to destroy the rocket or failing that inform the Martians about the rocket and give them some type of warning about what it contained? We suspected that no matter what message we sent by radio to the Martians to explain that the launch was an error and sent by individuals not acting on behalf of any Earth government would not be accepted as truth by the Martians. They had no reason to believe the truth. They had no reason to believe anything we said and we certainly had no real expectation that they would. The problem now facing the Committee was quite simple. If we allowed the missile to continue on and possibly hit its target – Mars – we could very well wipe out all life on their planet. This of course would end any further conflicts, which if allowed to begin, would surely cost millions of human as well as Martian lives. (Not that anyone in the highest levels of the Committee cared a damn about the lives of Martians.) Or do we send the destruct signal and destroy the rocket, which would be seen by Mars as perhaps an indication of our peaceful wishes?

It did not take long for the decision to be made. Do not inform the Martians but destroy the rocket. As the satellite passed over one of our Pacific radar sites the signal was sent to destroy the rocket, but for some reason the destruct mechanism did not fire. It was later suspected, but not possible to prove, that the renegades had foreseen the possible destruction of the missile by Earth authorities and had therefore disarmed it. It appeared they had also disabled the backup.

This however, was only an assumption as all of the renegade forces had been killed during the fighting or summarily executed soon after their capture. Their executions were, despite stories by the popular press, not ordered by higher authorities and those involved were disciplined. The men involved however, spent very little time in jail, as public sentiment would not allow it. They were heroes to a good number of people. They were soon freed, but were no longer in the military or the Committee at least for the next couple of years. (War would soon see these men back on duty.)

Now the question was: Do we now contact the Martians giving them warning of the biological threat and hope they had some way of intercepting the deadly rocket before it impacted on their planet or allow events to run their course? It came down to a simple thought. The primary reason for not sending the rocket in the first place was the very real possibility that the rocket could fail and rain its deadly cargo back on Earth. Now that point had been rendered mute since the rocket had obviously worked at least for the moment. It was in fact safely in orbit. So the question became one of ‘humanity,’ for lack of a better term, of the Martians rather than any such risk to Earth. Could the people of Earth live with the fact that we as humans would have been directly responsible for possibly killing off an entire planet’s ecosystem and with it possibly all life on that planet, including the ancient and intelligent life, albeit brutal non-human life of the Martians? Were humans interested in the defense of our home planet and peaceful relations with others or would we step into space for the very first time to cause death and utter destruction perhaps on a global scale mirroring what the Martians had attempted to do on Earth? What Earth scientists did not know at the time was that any Earth bacteria making contact with the Martian environment could not survive. So even if it had impacted the planet nothing would have come of it. This knowledge however was not part of the decision making process. Were we going to be good stewards of our new abilities or become brutal conquers in space as we had been upon our own Earth as did the Martians on Earth? We could not know it at the time, but that was the same question the ‘others’ were asking as well!

And before I became too smug sitting in my comfortable chair about this little dilemma and feeling quite superior, I was reminded of the Great Plains American Indian tribe known as the Mandans who in 1832 were nearly completely exterminated by an epidemic of smallpox in three weeks! The disease had been delivered in the form of intentionally contaminated blankets by the military. Smallpox, measles and other dread diseases had been used before to wipe out whole populations and it could very well be used again. Even without man’s help diseases have devastated native populations such as in California. In the early 1800s European explorers found dozens of villages in the interior areas where only skeletons of the dead could be found.

In the end it was decided that Earth would warn our brutal enemies on Mars that a missile thought to be deadly to all species on Mars was on its way giving them all of the flight information we had in the hope they could find the means to stop and destroy it before it impacted on Mars. Historians and others would study how that decision was made for years to come.

However, fate played its own hand before the message could be sent. As the missile prepared itself to fire out of Earth orbit for its deadly mission to Mars the missile exploded over the Pacific Ocean just as the rocket engines were operating at 100 percent of power with pieces of the destroyed craft re-entering the atmosphere and burning up. We were never able to discover whether or not the missile was defective and simply blew itself up or was perhaps destroyed by one of the Martian craft known to be orbiting our planet. We did discover one thing for certain – the Martians knew we had launched a rocket and they were fully prepared to respond to what we had done with or without any help from us.

PHOBOS REALLY MOVES!

“Eppure si muove!”

Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)

We were still tracking the missile’s radio signal when the call came in from the people working the Mars Watch Program. It was hard to believe, but reports of confirmation soon came in. Phobos had changed its orbit! This was not news to the Executive Committee of Twelve leadership as we had already received reports that stated that the ‘moon’ was an artificial satellite, but to actually see and track one of the two moons of Mars change its orbit was quite remarkable.

Such technological abilities were far beyond what we could hope to accomplish for many decades to come even if we were to obtain much greater back-engineered Martian technology. Understanding – to a point – was one thing. Being able to actually produce something as massive and scientifically superior as a large manmade moon was quite another thing entirely. It soon became evident that this so-called moon was much more than a massive control center. It also possessed a weapon of extraordinary capability and destructive power.

When Phobos changed its orbit to a much wider one around Mars we saw this as an indication that the Martians were nearing the end of their preparations to once again attack the Earth. The Mars Watch teams now had direct observational data showing that Phobos was indeed a Martian made orbital station of tremendous size and not a natural satellite of the planet. Once again we were amazed at the technical abilities of our off world enemies.

Our questions naturally led to a discussion about the possibility of the Martians sending this massive spacecraft to Earth. And if they did was there anything we could do to somehow attack this object? The only possible way for humans to attack that craft would be to place an atomic weapon of great energy on one of Dr. Goddard’s rockets. And to be clear, we were nowhere near being able to accomplish that little piece of science.

When Dr. Tesla was handed the report on the destructive nature of the Phobos’ weapon he looked ashen. As he finished reading the report and began to walk away all he would say was, “We are in deep trouble. If they bring that weapon to Earth orbit we don’t stand a chance. We have nothing to counter this threat. We must find a method to defeat this weapon as soon as possible. There must be a way and my team must find it, and soon, or any coming war will be lost even before it begins.”

[END PART 55]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 56: An interview with Mr. H. G. Wells.]

[PART 54]

The Underground Zoo Project

In truth the Zoo Project had begun many years earlier, but not as any well-organized or Committee funded program. For the most part a majority of zoos around the world had already developed local programs to protect their charges in the event of war, but not for long periods of time. Most had planned a release program or spreading out their animals in the event of interplanetary war. In late 1935 the Committee decided to look at the situation and develop a better way to protect these animals and once again they looked inward towards the Earth for solutions. Basement storage areas now had a whole new meaning for zoos.

Two ideas were thought to be best as protection methods. The first was simple and local. With help from Committee sources local zoos would begin a program of digging or expanding ‘basements’ for many of their animal holding areas as part of their regular construction. These reinforced underground holding areas would become part of the animals’ regular housing area. Designed only as temporary housing areas in case of war, they were expected to be used for up to three weeks at a time. Naturally these temporary holding areas would need to be manned when the time came.

The second plan called for the transportation of animals to larger holding areas in natural caves reworked to accommodate several different species hopefully ones that could “get along with each other”. Internally this was referred to as the “Noah’s Ark project”. Once again we would be looking at caves as a natural solution to a major problem. The “Ark Teams” crewed mostly by zoologists, biologists and geographers were also looking at which species could be rounded up in large enough numbers to become a reproducing population and transported to locations far enough away from their primary habitats to hopefully be safe if a crisis developed in their primary habitat yet in areas which could support these new groups for many years.

Finally it was decided to begin the process of transporting large numbers of animals around the world to areas that could sustain them as soon as possible in order to protect them in the event of war. Time would be critical in the event of war so transportation and occupation of these areas needed to be complete before an attack was suspected. Many unpopulated islands around the world soon began to see whole new animal populations thought to be critical to our diverse animal population’s survival. We had come to the conclusion that the Martians were interested in more than removing humanity from the face of the Earth. They were interested in wholesale reorganization of the entire planet including any other native life forms they had needs for. They really wanted to turn Earth into another version of Mars.

A Final word on Machu Picchu

It had been a little over two decades since Hiram Brigham made his dramatic discovery of the high citadel of Machu Picchu having been directed to the site following a committee conference in Santiago. Since then the Committee and university archaeological teams had cleared a great deal of the site and had uncovered many of the secrets lost for hundreds of years. Some had come from the hand of man, but many had the distinct print of a Martian. It was discovered that there were three primary structures at the site: the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun and the Room of the Three Windows.

Workers had discovered that work on the site was not complete when it was attacked. A nearby granite quarry showed signs that many stones were in the process of being worked. This suggested that the end came without warning. They also unearthed some 100 burial sites of people who had worked and lived at Machu Picchu. It was very clear that many, if not all, had died not by accident or old age, but by the ravages of small pox. Combined with translations taken from unearthed tablets it was clear once again that “the sky gods had brought death to the people.” It had been just one more test site for the brutal Martians. It would be the survivors of the small pox attack who would fight the final desperate battle amongst the snows of Machu Picchu. After 100 years around 1550 the end came to Machu Picchu.

What the teams also discovered was that in an area where torrential rains come each year Machu Picchu had been constructed in such a fashion as to allow perfect drainage without any large erosion problems to develop. In preparation of the site for food production the builders had shored up the entire site with stepped terraces up steep walls of the ridge. The terraces held a top layer of fine rich soil brought in from many miles away, a second layer of sand below the soil on top of a bottom layer of broken stones. This type of design allowed the average 76 inches of rain a year to filter through the terraces and slowly run off without destroying the finely designed work. It was in fact a masterpiece of engineering. Even after the site was eventually abandoned, locals continued to use the finely developed terraces to grow vegetable gardens. The rest of the facility was allowed to go back to local vegetation which soon covered most of the ruins.

The city itself was also constructed on this base of material; soil, sand and broken rock. At the base of the rocks were 100 drains placed throughout the small city which carried all of the extra water away from the more than 200 buildings and its central 1 acre grass plaza. The entire site was one huge drainage system designed to withstand the massive rains of the Andes. But who had designed it?

Three stone cut tablets told the tale. One showed the details of the three layered system. Another detailed the overall general layout of the city. And a third showed how the spring water had been transported into the city – all had Martian markings on them! The site was surely built by the Incas but it had been designed by the Martians. These were very same Martians who needed to construct massive canali across their own planet to survive.

There were other secrets to discover about this ancient site. Many of these people had not gone quietly into that dark night. Medical examination of some of the human remains had shown blunt force trauma. These were warriors who had been killed in defense of their mountain top retreat. However, these warriors had not fallen at the greasy tentacle of a Martian A or the blue/gray hand of a Martian B. These Inca had fought hand-to-hand combat with hybrids that had come to Earth in service to their Martian masters. Four of the bodies (bones) were hybrid. Part of the final attack on Machu Picchu had been a combined effort of Martians and hybrids and even though the people of the site had lost their efforts to defend their home to the very last, must have given the Martians pause. Humans were a warrior species and they were willing to die to defend even a small part of their planet.

The final secret taken from the site was almost the last artifact found at that location. At first glance the stone cut item looked like a group of square and rectangle blocks cut simply into a flat round rock measuring three and a half feet across. However, when it was cleaned one could see small, almost invisible markings on its surface. The scientists finally came to the conclusion that this round stone with the well laid out small blocks on its surface was in fact a finally crafted model of a city on Mars. They also concluded that the volcanic rock on which the model had been carved had itself been brought to Earth from Mars! We now had the only suspected model on Earth of how the Martians laid out their cities.

The Martians, at least by this model, built their cities outward from a center point using concentric circles from the center. The core was most likely the center of government for that city. It would seem that by necessity all Martian cities were round. Circles and central control were very important to the Martians. It is no wonder that most human cities and towns were so foreign to our enemies on Mars. My question was: Just how many ancient sites on Earth designed along the same lines as the Martian cities could be directly related to some type of Martian influence?

The Great Martian Launch Facilities

From early 1935 the teams working on the Mars Watch Program were bringing on line some of the finest optical equipment ever built on Earth. Certainly they had been aided by electronic documents and devices found in the Martian war machines, but the effort on the mirrors had been produced and developed purely from the skills of the scientists and engineers on Earth who had developed new methods, which had enabled them to produce the largest mirrors ever made. The Martian contribution, if that is the proper term, had come from devices used to stabilize their spacecraft. Committee teams had used these devices and reengineered them in order to help correct the problems of an unstable Earth atmosphere, which caused difficulties in “seeing”. These new devices caused the clarity to be twenty-five times clearer than possible without the so-called “reactive optics.”

As it turned out the clearer views of Mars paid off almost immediately for the Mars Watch Program. They spotted right away the new Martian launch facility up and alongside the Tharsis Montes Volcanoes. They also spotted what appeared to be huge facilities in support of the launch facility.

At first the astronomers did not know what they were looking at. It was felt that perhaps a new canal had been built, but this did not make any sense because the ‘canal’ did not run from any known source of water to any known or suspected large above or below ground facility. The clue to its real purpose was first revealed on 3 July 1935, when Mars Watch Program team members saw a series of flashes along much of the ‘canal.’ Were they ready to invade again?

As better observational equipment came on line, much improved due to the back engineering work being done by Directorate E, we were able to obtain much better views of Mars especially at opposition. As such it became clear that several massive building projects must have been on going on the Martian surface for some time. When the ‘seeing’ was particularly good one could just make out three dark lines along side Nix Olympia. Now known (thanks to recovered Martian Electronic Documents) (Ref: Martian Electric Document 116DB4) to be a massive volcanic mountain twice the height of Mount Everest, its base would cover the width of California with room to spare. At 10 miles high the massive volcano was nearly always visible above the sparse clouds and many dust storms, which bathe the planet every two to four years. It is now thought to be the largest known volcano in the solar system.

We soon discovered what these dark lines were. The Martians had constructed three 400 mile long magnetic pulse launching ramps to be used as the “first stage” machines to place their spacecraft into Mars orbit and to invade the Earth – or for that matter – any other destination the Martians may care to launch towards (Venus?). The launch begins with an explosive push, while the craft was lifted above the rails by magnets allowing the craft to float above with no contact friction. The craft was also kept in the center of the rail by magnets along the sides. Adding to the engineering marvel was a covering roof, which had magnets on its surface a well to not only keep the craft centered, but allowed no contact with the thin surface atmosphere.

As the spaceships flew along by a continuous series of sharp magnetic front pulses which added energy to the forward motion of the craft the ship slowly increased speed. By the time the craft reached the top of Nix Olympia at the very end of the rail tube it was estimated to be moving at an astonishing 8000 miles per hour. From that point the craft exited the rail flying free for a few seconds at which point powerful rocket engines were ignited easily sending the craft into orbit around Mars or on a direct path towards the Earth. It would be the ignition of these powerful rocket engines that we would spot several times from each ramp as the Martians sent these massive attack ships towards Earth to begin their next invasion. If we could someday harness this technology we certainly could develop spacecraft to easily orbit our Earth and perhaps someday travel to the moon and beyond. Once again the Mars Watch Program swung into action and reported no further launches. We also kept an eye open for new plagues, but this had only been a test. No new attacks were forthcoming at least not for the time being.

With our new optical equipment we were also able, for the first time, to actually view the four major population centers on Mars, or rather the three remaining population centers. The fourth one displayed only a darkened area. Our shock was to discover that there really were only three remaining city areas on the surface where the Martians lived all under domes. We were also able to ‘see’ the domes for the first time (barely as fuzzy spots). Our views showed that there were no major Martian facilities outside of the domed areas save the ones in support of their launch facilities and canals. This discovery seemed to clearly indicate that the Martians were truly nearing the end of their ability to survive on the surface of Mars. This information however, did not add any knowledge of how extensive the underground facilities must be, but they certainly must be rather extensive in order to support any large number of Martians still living on and under the planet as well as being able to support their massive launch facility. We were making a lot of guesses, but they were now being based upon known observational information as well as what it would take to do the work we knew to be on going.

We were also able for the first to ‘see’ once again barely, a much better view of the major canal system. They turned out to be a good deal more complicated than we had imagined. We were later able to confirm that along the entire length of active canals (more than 60 percent of the canals were inactive according to our intelligence reports) on both sides were well developed vegetation strips with red weed and something akin to medium sized trees. Small Martian “surface communities” were in place to tend the “crops” as well as monitor the movement of water along the canal. There was also what can best be described as roads along one side of the canal linking the communities. If only we could discover what lay beneath the Martian surface.

It would seem that a whole portion of Martian society had been devoted to monitoring and maintaining these canals as well as the crops and possibly small animals which are part of the canal ecological system. This made a great deal of sense considering how critical these canals are to the very survival of the Martians. If this system ever collapsed the species we know as Martian may very well vanish in a very short period of time.

By the end of 1935 Committee doctors had performed the first lobotomy on a Brotherhood hybrid who had been convicted of rape and murder. The hybrid was later killed and examined by doctors. After this first test the same procedure was performed on severely mentally handicapped full humans. They were not killed.

As another year came to an end we took time out to celebrate another World Nation’s Day on 17 December. Those of us in the Committee wondered how many more we would be celebrating before all of our nations once again faced the Martians in mortal combat?

Winston Reports

As the many nations of the world continued to prepare for a planetary war few discounted, my friend Sir Winston Churchill warned that totalitarian governments in Europe as well as other parts of the world were threatening democracies and weakening our overall military strength needed to defend our planet. At a meeting of the Magic Twelve held in Lower-London he would report, “We must focus on human self-preservation from an off-world enemy, but also of the human and the world cause of the preservation of free governments and of Western civilization against the ever advancing sources of authority and despotism. What is the good of defeating a Martian horde only to fall under the thumb of human despotism.”

[END PART 54]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 55: Chapter 9: Bracing for interplanetary War.]