[PART 53]

Defense Matters

THE GADGET

By now the Tunguska bomb project had spread its work to more than 35 program most-secret sites across the United States and Southern Canada with two additional research facilities in England. Four of these facilities were now producing high-grade (92.5% pure) uranium-235 and uranium-238. There was one area however, which had been especially selected to put all of this work together and build the ‘gadget’. It had to be not only most secret, it had to be far enough away from populated areas (not a big problem) so that if the device exploded prematurely or some other type of accident occurred few people would be killed and fewer still would know what had actually happened. The site chosen was Los Alamos, New Mexico, in the hot desert (not a particularly welcome spot for Martians which was one of the reasons why it was selected) known by the Committee as “Tunguska West.” (Within the Committee going out west meant a trip to the Los Alamos assembly and test site.)

After the “West” team put it all together the bomb was scheduled be taken fully assembled to the vehicle designated to deliver it to the target. At the time no one knew what type of vehicle that might be. The only piece that would not be put in at Los Alamos was the igniter, which was about the same size and shape as the average torch (flashlight). That would be carried separately by a second team. This was a failsafe precaution. If the bomb was captured it could not be exploded without the igniter. (Of course the igniter was useless without the gadget). They would have only captured a very heavy piece of very complicated metal, which could not be set off even if the largest conventional bomb had gone off right next to it. It would have been very dirty bomb, but it would not be an atomic explosion.

We still had hopes the Martians were unaware of our work on their very destructive device.

AIRCRAFT CARRIERS READY TO GO

After years of research and development military forces of several major Earth nations now had a new group of truly battle-ready aircraft carriers set to be deployed around the world. Committee and major world governments could now count 102 such massive ships, half of which were slated to be deployed on patrol duty in “peace time” with all 102 to be on duty when and if word was received that the Martians were on their way. The public would soon hear that these carriers such as the HMS Hermes with a British crew, the USS Lexington from America, the Japanese carrier Hosho and the CS Morgan with an international crew were on duty. All of these carriers would act as the central vessel of what was later called a “Carrier Task Force Group”. Each group set sail with at least three battleships, four destroyers and several cruisers as well as tankers and other support ships. They could also boast the presence of at least two attack submarines as part of their task force. The Martians would, we felt reasonably certain, have a tough time going after these ships as they were prepared to do battle over the skies of our oceans. Martian ground forces could not attack these ships. It was our plan to hold and control all of the world’s oceans and sea lanes even as we expected to lose a good deal of ground in land battles, at least at the start of Martian operations.

Adding to these large carriers we had converted dozens of merchant ships, mainly as a stop gap measure, now designated as escort carriers to be used to provide air cover for large convoys as well as a secondary assignment to support any expected amphibious landings. This conversion work was a direct off shoot of the work which had been conducted in the 1920s.

Nations around the world had also produced 60 so-called “light aircraft carriers” which were larger than the escort carriers, but smaller than the Carrier Task Force version. These carriers were the fastest in these fleets as all of these had been built on hulls which had originally been designed and built for fast moving cruisers. It was expected that we would need more air resources than sea recourses to fight the Martians thus the need to convert these hulls to small yet fast sailing aircraft carriers. For the purposes of strategic deployment, nearly half of these light carriers would be pre-positioned off of major coastal population centers providing an additional off-shore air cover for these cities. Their deployment off shore was hoped to be unexpected by any Martian ground based attack force. Ours plans called for our forces to envelop and attack any Martian force from as many directions as possible at the same time (Land, Sea and Air).

THE PANAMA CANAL

Additional work on the Panama Canal area was also being finished up at this time. Begun in 1930 and completed in 1935 workers had finished building the Madden Dam across the Chagres River above Gatun Lake as part of the upgrade work on the Panama Canal. The creation of Madden Lake added a great deal of additional water storage capability long known to be critical for the area. The new submarine bases at both ends of the canal were also complete and were now fully operational. Both had been completely covered by camouflage and protected openings. There was nothing on the surface to indicate that these new submarine bases even existed. If the Martians were to fight on the oceans these submarine bases would give them a good run for their money. We hoped they would provide a very nasty surprise for them to deal with.

It should be recalled that H. G. Wells was never a great believer in submarine technology at the time and more so when it was actually developed. He was even less enthusiastic about the whole thing when he learned that several Directors would probably be onboard when they were deployed. “My imagination refuses to see any sort of submarine doing anything but suffocate its crew and founder at sea.” The way I looked at it was anything a Martian cannot find they cannot shot at!

WHITEHEAD’S PILOT-LESS AIRCRAFT

It had taken many years of hard dedicated work by several teams to finally put together a workable pilotless aircraft we could actually control, but the task had finally been accomplished. This advanced version had a small TV camera in its noise which transmitted an image to a pilot who could then control the aircraft while he sat in a control plane as far away as 15 miles. Tests of this remarkable device showed that well over 80% of the time the controller could place the 1000lb bomb carrying craft within 20 feet of a target. These however were stationary ground targets. The percentage of hits on moving ground targets was 20% dropping to as low as 10% for airborne targets.

To enhance the accuracy of the device the Tesla teams were working very hard on re-working small radar devices which would “paint a moving target” if it was made of metal. He hoped to increase the accuracy to at least 60% making it almost a sure “kill’ if three such devices were fired at the same time at the same target. Work would naturally continue.

GODDARD FINALLY REACHES ORBIT

3 July 1935

The first attempt to place a small radio transmitting instrument package or small satellite as it was soon called into low Earth orbit was scheduled for 2 July 1935. However, after a complete ground test of the three-stage Goddard ‘M’ rocket was conducted, (now known as the Thunder Child after the British ship that had fought so valiantly against the Martians in 1901) it was found to be too windy to chance a launch. High flying Phoenix lls had found cross winds over the projected path of the rocket between 80 and 160 miles per hour. And even though Dr. Goddard assured the launch team that his new rocket could handle the wind loads as an unloaded test flight he was not certain the satellite could withstand that much stress. Dr. Tesla who was also on site to view the launch agreed. This was not a rocket test. Putting the satellite into orbit was the goal of that days launch so the launch was postponed for 24 hours.

The forecast was for low cloud cover and winds to diminish to acceptable levels the next day. Dawn on the third showed only slight improvement. Nevertheless, ground crews began what they called their “countdown.” This consisted of a ground and rocket systems check of every aspect of the craft as well as the equipment such as the radar and radio systems being made ready to track and control the rocket before and after it left the launch site. They (Dr. Tesla’s team) would also conduct a full test of the 50lb radio controlled satellite sitting on top of the Thunder Child encased inside a nose cone which would, if all went according to plan, separate once the satellite entered into low Earth orbit. Half way through the countdown liquid fuel would be loaded into the rocket.

As for the odds of success, well I thought it was no better than 50%. Most of the men who had been working on the program gave it anywhere from 25% to perhaps 1 in 3. Dr. Goddard was a bit more optimistic stating that he felt his team had a better than 90% chance of pulling this off since his team had successfully launched three Goddard M rockets in a row with only one going off course and even that rocket had reached 120 miles into space and 14,000 miles per hour before it decided to point itself in the direction of Earth and exploding. Goddard was much more concerned about the viability of the satellite than the capabilities of his rocket.

It was T-15 minutes before launch as we gathered some 7500 feet from launch pad A – Cape Canaveral Florida missile range. It was difficult not be excited at Earth’s first attempt to place a man-made satellite into orbit. My thoughts were on whether or not our launch would be interfered with by any Martians either on the ground or from the air. And what about outer space? We could perhaps protect the rocket and its payload up to a certain point during its assent but after it went out of range of our fighters it was on its own.

At T-12 minutes (T = scheduled take off) Dr. Goddard called for a crew check to insure that no one had been left at the launch site. After that check the command was radioed to the rocket to begin its up-spinning of its third stage to prepare it for stable flight. The launch log would report.

The Thunder Child rocket now rose on a tongue of flame. Seconds later the roar of the rocket passed over our viewing site.

The rocket rose straight and true climbing vertically then arching off the launch pad as it climbed out over the Atlantic Ocean trailing a red/yellow arch of flame with graphite fragments flying off as parts of the carbon exhaust vans used to steer the rocket burned off.

The first stage burned out on time at two minutes and 37 seconds. At separation the second stage could clearly be seen from the ground as the rocket continued to accelerate and climb over the Atlantic as it entered a bank of clouds. It would be the last time we saw the Thunder Child but we knew that at the time all seemed to be going as planned. All we could do then was wait for the tracking stations in California to pick up the radio signal. If all had gone well we would know in about 113 minutes. Standing by at the United States Naval Research Center in San Diego team members waited to hear the radio signal from the satellite. Dr. Goddard had calculated that it would pass over California at 12:41 am Eastern time.

At 12:40 am the team called to see if the satellite had been heard from but the answer was “Not yet, standing by.” The phone line was kept open for any updates and at 12:41 a.m. one of the officers at the control room asked, “Do you hear her?” Once again the reply was, “Negative. No radio contact. Still standing by for confirmation.”

At 12:43 am General Peterson, commander of the base got on the phone and again he was told, “Negative Sir.” The general then turned to Dr. Goddard and asked, “Well, why the hell don’t we hear anything?” Goddard, now looking a bit nervous replied, “Let’s wait a while longer.” Time seemed to almost stand still as everyone held their breaths.

Then from the radar station at San Diego came, “We have the bird!”

Taking a deep breath Dr. Goddard looked at his watch and said, “Interesting. She is nine minutes late.” Tesla, smiling said nothing and simply walked over to Goddard and shook his hand.

Calculations would later show that the rocket had been 1% more powerful than predicted sending the satellite into a slightly higher orbit than planned requiring more time to orbit the Earth. The next day the new artificial moon was given the designation Earth 1.

MAGIC – MOST SECRET

Magic Order MO-391

Immediate: Directorate C is ordered to produce a contract to build two prime and one spare Command Submarines to be used as underwater command posts in the event of interplanetary war. All three subsurface craft are to be completed within the next 48 months.

MAGIC THREE-NEW YORK

MAGIC – MOST SECRET

Defense of the Above Ground Cities

One of the first areas of responsibility relegated to local governments by the Committee during the early years of the world’s recovery had been the reconstruction of above ground cities. It was felt early on that no one single organization could possibly direct all of the areas needed to rebuild on such a vast scale. As such the Committee had encouraged local control almost as the smoke was still rising from the debris of the Martian War. The only effort the Committee would be involved in when it came to the rebuilding would be to supply as much financial and labor support as they could and if called upon send in experts to help local city planners. At times we were also able to supply prisoner work forces, but only when they were no longer needed for Committee programs. This hands-off approach seemed to be going quite well as local populations stepped forward to do the work. De-centralizing control and responsibility of essentially local matters was a natural progress as we worked to rebuild the world.

However, as would be expected the Committee still had primary responsibility for defense of these new cities and it was a responsibility we took very seriously. Working with local officials both in the civilian as well as military areas the Committee had dreamed up individual plans for all major above ground cities world-wide to put together rings of defense around the largest population centers. From the very start of above ground rebuilding the Committee had put forward three suggestions for these new cities.

One – Where possible there must be large areas near these populated centers that are covered by natural vegetation, preferably tress, which could hide large numbers of people from aerial view. This included a search and development program for local natural caves if feasible to be used as temporary bomb shelters. These areas were to also have at least a minimal amount of emergency supplies in place before hostile operations begin (food, water, clothes, shelter, medical as well as hand held weapons).

Two – There must be underground bomb shelters built into each building above five stories in order to house at least twenty percent of the local above ground population.

Three – Defensive rings around these population centers were to be built which could house military forces which will allow a strong ground defense of each population center and they must be built so as to present no obvious indications of their locations to an enemy ground or air attack. Many of these areas were expected to be defended, at least in the opening part of any conflict by local reserve forces. These reserve forces would be supplemented by regular forces as much as possible.

Four – Deception operations led by experts from the Committee were also to be employed which would hopefully direct hostile actions away from major population centers such as open areas lit and built to resemble actual cities from the air and radio transmitters which could be used in these areas to construct false broadcasts from these false unpopulated areas.

This was part of a multiple layering system of defense which would require the Martians to come up against strong lines of defense time and time again as they went deeper into the cities. It was also recommended by the Committee that any businesses in the cities be required to develop an evacuation plan for their workers as well as instruction in civil defense and weapons training. Over the years these plans had for the most part become part of the rebuilding programs of above ground cities, and by now most large population centers were well on their way to completing these requirements.

Editor’s Note: Having defeated Earth forces on the surface of Earth during the First Terrain War Mars Prime did not consider the build-up of city strong points on Earth to be a major military problem.

World Seed Banks

For many years Directorate A had been working on a special project they internally referred to as “The dooms day food project”. The actual name was the World Grain Project (WGP). The WGP was a plan originally drawn up by England’s new Royal Botanic Gardens headquartered in Kew to build up and safeguard as many different food grains and seeds as possible in order to protect major world grain supplies in case the Martians came up with some new type of virus, fungus or disease which could attack our world grain supplies. These were seen as “insurance policies” against the very real possibility that massive attacks could not only wipe out grain supplies, but could also cause some food plants to go extinct. The first locations were to be set up, once again in deep caves, salt mines and large tunnels, but the sheer volume of the project made it necessary to use many smaller locations as well to ensure survival of the grains. Separation and division were felt to be critical. We needed to spread these locations out around the world. We were later to learn that the Martians had done the very same thing on their home planet (Ref: Martian Electric Document 498D17).

Certainly part of the mix were all four prime underground cities which were soon to became part of the plan, but it was also decided to build four brand new locations, which could hold at least a million tons of seed each which would then be divided up into ten different types of critical grains in each facility. These grain seeds were not to be used for food in the conventional sense. They were to be used to plant a new harvest if our food supplies were destroyed by any outside force (Martians?). The four new primary grain storage facilities were built near large port facilities in Bergen, Norway, Anchan in northern China, Puerto Natales in southern Chile and Melbourne, Australia, code named Mercury, Venus, Earth and yes – Mars.) A later facility – Jupiter – was planned for the Falkland Islands because of its isolated location in the South Atlantic. The Committee felt that even during a major invasion from Mars it would be unlikely that the Martians would pay any attention to those isolated and very thinly populated islands. Redundancy and isolation were keys to the plan. Hide and spread out our resources was the plan.

Three large old salt mines were also selected as part of the original program. The first was a mine located near Mount Morris, New York, code named ‘Rain’. It was a new location, but soon showed promise. The Sifto Salt Mine in Goderich, Ontario, Canada, the largest in the world was also a natural choice. The prime chamber at Sifto is 3.2 miles under Lake Huron showing a layout of 1.5 miles wide and two miles long, code named ‘Wind’. The amount of grain, which could be stored in this secure location, was truly staggering. Finally, the salt mine 1,200 feet below the devastated city of old Detroit was selected, as the mine had suffered no damage to its 1,500 acre site despite the near total destruction of the Detroit/Windsor area above the mine, code named ‘Hail.’ The fact that it was well below the destroyed cities made the rubble mostly still in place after three decades the ideal cover for a hidden facility. It also had the advantage of being located very near the Detroit River where access could easily be gained to Lake Erie, towards the East Coast and a mid-transport location to the Midwest United States. The 30 men who normally worked at the mine soon swelled to 468. Within a year the workforce numbered near 2000.

These new areas were chosen for their generally cold climates as well as their relatively stable geologic situations, even though the facility in Northern China did cause some debate within the Committee. It was finally approved due to its relatively close location to major grain producing areas. As with the New Detroit location transportation was still a major concern even this long after the war. We were still very much in recovery mode, but we had learned a great deal about how to protect our planet since 1901. As in other areas these three salt mines were not to show any outward appearance of defensive forces, which could attract the Martians. The only real major construction would be a series of steel doors built to protect the entrances to the facilities. When they were filled they would be closed off until needed.

As an addition to these prime grain facilities many of the new nations began building their own extended grain storage facilities, which included seeds from many wild plants native to their areas including grasses, flowering plants, trees and just about any type of plant one cares to mention. In California there was even a group who made it their business to begin “seed, nut and pod clubs.” Their members took it upon themselves to collect as many different species as they could, trading with each other to spread out the greatest variety of seeds amongst their membership. It did not take long for these ‘Seed Clubs’ to go nation-wide at first and then world-wide as news spread of the effort. Needless to say, the members of the Committee were delighted to see these grass roots efforts being developed (no pun intended). Not only could these efforts became very valuable to the Earth in an emergency, it put the public into a position of being able to do real work defending our planet. Letters of commendation and yearly awards were soon forthcoming as Directorate L became more involved with news reports of these private efforts.

By November 1935 the World Grain Project would realize one of its original goals of obtaining supplies of just about every food grain readily available on the planet. They had also “banked” 10% of the world’s wild plant types – numbering some 24,000 species. Their work would continue right up to and in some areas, during the Second Martian War. At the same time the Committee was informed that a fifth primary food bank location was being developed just outside of St. Louis, Mo, code named “Vulcan”. This facility was to hold grains only in sealed drums as an additional precaution against contamination. The ‘seed front’ of the war was only one example of mankind’s all out effort to save the planet from interplanetary attack. If anything we humans were going to out-organize the hell out of our enemies from Mars.

SAGED COMES ‘ON-LINE’

It had taken a year longer than projected and I might add a great deal more money to develop and construct, but in December of 1935 we ‘turned on’ the largest set of linked computing devices ever developed by mankind. At noon GMT 25 December the 26 SAGED installations, each weighing in at 250 tons and using some 56,000 vacuum tubes each came on-line. It went down in only 35 minutes when several machines over heated. For eight hours technicians worked on bringing down the temperatures in the massive rooms housing the underground devices and replacing hundreds of tubes. On the second try the machines hummed along and would stay in working order as hundreds of SAGED team members worked around the clock to keep the equipment and computing devices on alert.

What was really a surprise was the fact that only 25 minutes after the full system was up and running are received our first report. The linked machines locked into our newly improved deep radar system reported seven unidentified objects in polar orbit around the Earth. We had spotted Martian craft, at least we suspected they were Martian, orbiting planet Earth! By the gods the bloody system worked!!!

CAIG MOST SECRET

CAIG 50-35 CAIG WEEKLY ACTIVITY REPORT (STAR BRIGHT) 14 December 1935

Historic reports: CAIG historic files presently number some 1234 unexplained aerial reports.

332 B.C. – Alexander the Great while crossing a strategic river was harassed by “shining silvery shields with fire spitting from their rims.” These aerial craft dove at his men making the crossing causing his war elephants and horses to panic and run. Also during the siege of Tyre then held by the Persians in 332 B.C. the “flying shields” returned. Five were reported over Tyre and one of these craft fired a “lightning bolt” which destroyed a large area of the cities thick defensive wall. Alexander then entered and conquered the city.

74 B.C.– A Roman army under the command of Lucullus preparing to do battle with Mithridater VI of Pontas in Phrygia, Asia was interrupted when, according to Plutarch, “all of a sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape it was most like a wine-jar, and in color, like molten silver.”

1034 A.D. – As reported in Liber Chronicarum published in 1493 a fiery cigar-shaped object was seen flying over Western Europe during a late evening. The object flew from south to east in a straight path and then west towards the setting Sun. A drawing of the object showed flames all around it as well as what seems to be some type of rocket exhaust. This is possibly the first European drawing of a reported UFO. Document held in Verdun, France: underground vault.

24 September 1235 A.D. – Mysterious lights seen high in the night sky near Tokyo were spotted by General Yoritsume. In camp the soldiers saw the object “perform aerobatic maneuvers” which included flying in circles and loops. He was later informed by the government, “after a full scale investigation” that it was “completely natural … only the wind making the stars sway.”

Recent reports: During the past week ending 14 December CAIG has recorded 1351 unexplained aerial reports over the northern hemisphere. Selected sighting briefs below.

10 Dec. – An Italian farmer near Abbiate Guazzone, Lombardy, Italy reported that “humanoids had landed near his property with one of them shooting at him and his work as with “a beam of green light.”

11 Dec. – Numerous colorful spheres were spotted over Hambury, Germany. They appeared to be around three feet in diameter spotted as close as 100 feet from the ground. They were fully under some control.

12 Dec. – Load sonic booms have been heard over the forests of northern central Canada. Many of them have been accomplished by high altitude unidentified aerial craft.

13 Dec. – Several reports have come in from North Africa of unidentified aerial lights hovering over western port facilities all along the continent. None of these lights have been intercepted or fully identified as of this writing. These could very well be “others.”

o Unidentified aerial activity continues to increase world-wide. However, it is believed that rigorous aerial patrols by national and Committee forces continue to discourage abductions. Continuous anti-aircraft engagement of unidentified craft has also had some effect of keeping unidentified craft at a distance from critical defense locations. It is felt however that these incursions are a test of our facilities and engagement of these ‘UFOs’ will be conducted ONLY if our facilities come under actual attack.

CAIG MOST SECRET

[END PART 53]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 54: An underground zoo, Machu Picchu and a Mars launch.]

[PART 52]

Attack on Antarctic Coastal Base

The Southern Cross reconnaissance had shown that the Martians were at the south geologic pole. So it was really no surprise when we received word that there was some type of Martian activity on the coast of Antarctica. In fact we would have been a bit surprised if there was nothing else going on as we had plenty of evidence to indicate that the vast continent of over five million square miles would be a rather prime location for our Martian adversaries. Now it seemed they had expanded their efforts on the cold icy subcontinent to its edges.

The area concerned along the Antarctic coast was named George V Coast located between Victoria Land and Wilkes Land. The point of land thought to be occupied had been originally identified and mapped by Lt Charles Wilkes of the United States Navy in 1840 and named Cape Hudson. During February 1913 as part of our Antarctic Martian reconnaissance program Douglas Mawsom of the Australian team had closely charted large sections of this coast moving from point to point by sledge. During his difficult work he was able to keep in radio contact with military forces on Marquarie Island. His reports were then relayed to Lower-Sydney. During his time there he was able to confirm that there was no Martian activity anywhere to be seen on the surface even though he was able to report sighting several “unidentified aerial craft in the general area.”

We began to speculate on exactly why the Martians would choose this particular location to set up shop. The area is nearly constantly sweep by bitter cold winds blowing off the ice sheet that drops off the nearby cliffs. (Not too bad of weather for Martians.) It was brought to our attention that the Magnetic South Pole was just south of that location even though it was some 1526 miles north of the geographic South Pole known of course to be Martian occupied. Since we knew the Martians had used magnetic lines of force to navigate and travel we soon concluded that this could very well be their southern orbital entry point. If that were the case we needed to remove that base as soon as possible. This Martian base just inland of Joseph Cook Bay at the top of the cliffs at around 1900 feet above sea level became a top priority target for the Committee.

As one Aussie remarked, “The area is claimed by Australia and New Zealand and we can live with that, but I’ll tell you what mate I’ll be damned if we will allow some bloody Martian to put in a claim.”

Our reconnaissance team sent in by submarine was able to take several very good photos of the cliff-high base from the sea and after a very difficult climb several good photos were taken from the east end of the small facility before returning to Sydney. It was clear that the only way we could successfully engage the enemy would be to hit it with off-shore batteries. The base was too difficult to attack with enough force from land and any bombers could be easily attacked by the single Heat-Ray in the center of the base. They seemed to be well prepared to defend against an aerial attack. However, the Martians appeared to have made a tactical error. If we could attack the base and the cliffs it sat on with heavy gun fire we could very well destroy it before they had a chance to re-direct their Heat-Ray which as it stood at the time was not in a good position to fire at targets off shore.

Plans were soon completed by our Sydney Committee Headquarters to send in three battleships supported by an attack submarine which would pave the way and coordinate the attack. Standing by to support the operation would be three new Phoenix Alpha II fighter-bombers based out of Melbourne. The fighter-bombers would be set to go in, if and when the battleships could confirm that they had knocked out the Heat-Ray. At that point the fighter-bombers would fly in and destroy any remaining targets on the surface even as the battleships continued to fire on the cliffs just below the Martian facility. By attempting to collapse the cliffs it was hoped that any underground facilities not evident from the reconnaissance could also be destroyed.

The task force set out from Melbourne in the early hours of 12 February 1934 with Committee submarine Tiger Fish leading the battleships USS Iowa, USS Arizona and the Australian Navy’s battleship ARN Victoria. Assembling 20 miles off the coast of Antarctica the battleships positioned themselves in a line ready to attack, awaiting the word to go by the Tiger Fish. The area was generally free of ice all the way in. It was a perfect summer day in Antarctica; clear and cold. It did not take long for the sub to radio the code word “Sunrise”. As one, all three battleships went to full steam heading for the icy volcanic cliffs of Joseph Cook Bay.

As the battleships made their way south the Phoenix Alpha IIs took off from Melbourne Station and headed to a holding point ten miles behind (north) of the ships waiting their turn to attack the Martian base. Moments after the ships arrived on station the battleships opened up on the base. The first to fire a salvo of six shells was the Victoria soon followed by the Iowa and Arizona. Directing and adjusting the fires were two teams of special naval forces which had been transported to the west of the Martian base by the CS Sea Devil. It was not long before the Martians attempted to return fire however despite the fact that they were firing directly at the ships the Heat-Ray was not able to depress low enough to hit any of them. The Heat-Ray did however cause the fighters to scatter and fly “on the deck” for the next few minutes. That was long enough for the battleships to score several direct hits on the Heat-Ray completely destroying the deadly device. Fire was then shifted to the face of the 1900 foot cliff. It was at that point the fighters were ordered in to finish off the base.

Swinging south and in a perfect diamond formation the fighter/bombers flew directly at the base unloading a series of 200 pound bombs most of which landed on target. After the successful run the fighter/bombers were coming around for a second pass when a radio call came up, “Martian Flying Machines at due south on the deck.” This fight had just become an aerial dog fight with two Martian Flying Machines.

It was thought the Martians must have come from their base at the geographic South Pole having received word from their coastal base that it was under attack. However, we soon realized that even the Martians could not fly that far that fast in the atmosphere so their arrival must have been coincidental. It was one hell of a coincidence. Nevertheless, they had arrived too late to save the base but were right on time to engage our new Phoenix Alpha IIs in a dog fight over the ice fields of Antarctica.

Hearing the radio call all three fighter/bombers peeled off to engage the Martians dropping to the deck as close as they could to the ice. This was extremely dangerous given the fact that there was very little in the way of indicators as to how close they really were. They were in fact so close to the blue-white sheet of ice that trails of disrupted ice and snow marked their passing.

Both groups opened up at the same time. The Phoenix Alpha IIs fired two air-to-air missiles each immediately followed by machine gun fire. The Martians fired Heat-Rays but incredibly both beams missed their targets and only one missile impacted one of the Martian Flying Machines. The Martian was clearly hit and trailing black smoke however it was still able to fly and maneuvered very well. It was clearly not out of the fight by any means.

As the aircraft passed each other the Martians continued heading towards the battleships which by now were firing every available weapon they had at the fast approaching enemy aircraft. The firing was so intense that it seemed to be nothing more than a gray sheet heading towards the in incoming planes and the gunners were hitting their targets. The first damaged Martian craft with the second Martian flying as his wing man flew directly at the Arizona unleashing a beam of white hot energy at the center of the ship. Within seconds the ship as on fire and the flames were spreading fast. Nevertheless, the men on the now crippled Arizona continued to fire on the Martian.

As the crews from the Iowa and Victoria poured gunfire on the Martians the now severely damaged first Martian Flying Machine passed over the Arizona making a very tight 360 degree turn. Once again flying directly at the Arizona the machine was no longer able to fire its Heat-Ray. The craft simply flew directly into the side of the Arizona and exploded with a tremendous clap of thunder. The explosion pulled the ship out of the water and split it in half! One minute later what remained of the great ship disappeared under the Antarctic Ocean. Out of a crew of 1177 men only five survived the attack. Once again a military engagement with the Martians had proved to be very costly.

By now the second Martian craft could be seen flying south trailing thick clouds of smoke. The Phoenix Alpha IIs did not chase after it.

As rescue crews from the Iowa set out to pick up any survivors the Victoria continued firing at the cliffs. Two of the fighter-bombers went back to “dismantling” the small Martian base as the third flew high cover in case the Martians attempted a second go at the attack force. Within 20 minutes there was nothing identifiable on the surface. Five minutes later a large section of the ice covered volcanic cliff collapsed. As it fell away tunnels could be clearly seen which proved once again that the Martians had dug into the ground for their needs. The costly mission had been accomplished. It was time to lick our wounds and go home. After he was briefed on the operation the Prime Director would comment, “That was quite a cost for one stinking little Martian outpost.” He would later write to the families of the lost crew.

We will long remember the Arizona and the sacrifice her crew made in defense of this planet. It is a deep heart-felt loss. Their courage, determination and fighting skill will live on in all of us as an example of what it takes to defeat this most difficult adversary.

Finishing Up the Underground Work

Officially, the massive central core elements of the four primary underground cities of Earth were completed at the same time on 1 July 1935 at 12 noon GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) after nearly three and a half decades of work. Waiting for the last brick to be “officially placed into a wall” were crews in their respective cities of Lower-London, Lower-New York City and Lower-Sydney. They had effectively been finished with their underground work for weeks and many of the crews were now working on above ground projects. In the case of Lower-New York work had been completed for about a year, but all were to be ‘officially’ completed on the same day, same hour and just for history, the same minute. That time had finally come as the “golden bricks” were mortared into place when Lower-Upola, Samoa, signaled that they were ready. The final project needing to be completed in Samoa was the state of the art desalination plant built completely underground right next to the electric generating plant. Both facilities were now on line and fully operational.

Behind the bricks were placed small metal boxes with the names of all the men who had lost their lives building these facilities and there was no mention as to whether the lost workers had been there as regular workers or as prisoners – all were simply listed by chronological order of their deaths on the projects. In all some 33,163 names were on those four lists. This was only part of the cost humanity had to pay to complete four large underground facilities in preparation for interplanetary war with Mars. On this day the new Lower city mayors also took their oaths of office as they prepared for city business. Naturally they had been in office for a good many months but this would be their ‘official’ start date.

One of the final major additions to the underground cities program was to put into place a rather large series of oxygen generation facilities. These facilities used a rather simple idea to not only produce pure oxygen, but also generate hydrogen fuels. As part of the electric generation plants Dr. Tesla and his team had set up a series of thick bare wire plates built into a mesh design and placed into water reservoirs. Positive charges released oxygen from the water (H²O) in the form of gas bubbles while negative charges released hydrogen. These captured gases were then collected for the hydrogen and saved or released into the outside atmosphere or as with the oxygen, stored or released into the tunnel complex of the underground cities (mostly released). With this method in place there would be a continuous production of oxygen and a continuous out gassing of gases from the facilities. In point of fact the oxygen levels in the underground cities soon rose to 1-2 percent higher than normal Earth atmosphere. These methods insured that positive atmospheric pressure would be maintained at all times in the lower-cities.

This was also a celebration of the rather large new libraries which had also been built into all three primary underground cities. These were part of the Vaults for Mankind program, but separate in and that these were regular libraries well stocked for the public. Hundreds of underground museums of all kinds had also been completed in both large and small facilities around the world.

It was also noted that the International Red Cross had by now set up some 1425 facilities around the world in every major population center on Earth as well as many outlying areas fully stocked and prepared for what may let come from our planetary adversaries on Mars.

This same year Philo Farnsworth completed his three-city Electronic Vision system (TV) which could be used by the underground city control centers to transmit live video images of major control areas around the world as long as they were connected by underground cable. This three-city test had gone so well that the Committee decided to place video cameras in critical places around many cities in order to keep an eye on the enemy even if there were no humans in the area. Many would be placed in view of the Black Smoke defense fields.

We also finished the work on the world-wide cable system for back up communications in case radio transmissions proved to be impossible. For the most part every major population center on Earth as well as many other less populated areas was now directly linked with this underwater, underground system. We all knew that it was old technology, but the Martians had not attacked the system intentionally during the First Martian War and we had every reason to believe that this new system would go unnoticed by them when they returned for a second go at the planet. And even if they discovered the cable system and attacked it the system was so widespread that it would be impossible to destroy the entire Earth system. At the same time the first primitive international telephone system was completed and was up and running. For now the system linked all of the world’s major cities, but work would continue around the world to hook-up as many outer lying areas as possible. Needless to say, many of these new “telephone companies” were at least partly owned and operated by “Committee men.” By now there were some 25 million phones in America and at least 30 million more world-wide. How long they would be operational during a major interplanetary war was anyone’s guess. Overlapping systems was the key.

As far as commercial radio was concerned by the mid 1930s nearly every home in the United States and Canada had a radio. In Western Europe that level dropped to around 94% with the rest of the continent at around 70%. The rest of the world came in at anywhere from 24% in Russia to 9% in most of Africa. Overall, it was felt that any important news needing to be broadcast to most of the world would be heard. With short-wave radio, cable systems and new phone lines added to the mix, for the most part the world could be informed in short order if any Martian related, or for that matter, any other news occurred they needed to learn.

COSMIC SCIENCE CONTINUES

In 1928 Professor Edwin Hubble provided confirmation that the “Martian Theory of Universal Expansion” was indeed occurring. The explosive expansion from a “cosmic egg” of pure energy, later called the “big bang” was continually pushing time and space in all directions. However, when our teams were able to complete the translation work on related Martian documents we learned that this particular “creation event” was merely the latest universal expansion caused by a previous epoch in which all matter and space eventually came together in a massive collapse. What the Martians had discovered was not so much a big bang but a tremendous gravitational rebound.

According to the Martian documents (Ref: Martian Electronic Documents 294P15, 294P16, 294P17) all matter and energy in the universe collapses to a point no larger than one ten billionth of an atom in a time reported to represent 10-44 power seconds before a theoretical complete ‘singularity’ of all of time and space would occur. At this point the force we know as gravity ‘reverses its polarity” and all of space and time in that tiny point becomes repulsive. Gravity is no longer attractive for less time than it takes light to cross from one side of a nucleus of a hydrogen atom. This massive event inflates the entire universe to, according to Martian documents, half the size of our known universe at this time in that very short period of time. This reversal of polarity appears to be what we now call the “Big Bang”.

It was also learned from Martian documents that lightning occurs in the atmospheres of both Venus and Jupiter and to a lesser degree Saturn. It has been learned that although very rare, lightning does occur in the atmosphere of Mars, in connection with one or more of the massive volcanoes reported to exist on the high plains of Mars.

I could only wonder what great and noble things these Martians could accomplish if they were not so single minded in their efforts to conduct war on a planetary scale.

Grow Lights and Fish Farms

GROW LIGHTS

Upon completion of their detailed research the group who had been back engineering Martian technology was able to deliver their latest product derived from the Martians to the new underground cities. They had perfected a viable, long lasting grow light, which had been under development for years (since 1921), which could be set up underground and used to grow just about any crop imaginable completely without sunlight. Even during a long and protracted war the people living in these lower complexes as with other smaller facilities would be able to produce some food. As we all know photosynthesis is the process by which plants use the energy of the Sun to break down carbon dioxide taken from the atmosphere absorbing the carbon and releasing oxygen as a waste product. With this process on going underground it would greatly enhance the ability to scrub the air of CO² and add another source of pure oxygen to the underground facilities. These were big wins for the people working underground. It was also noted that the people seeing real plants growing underground was a great psychological lift to them. With this in mind underground residents soon begin seeing individual trees on L-street corners with individual grow lights above them. Before long groups were adopting their own trees and taking care of them. It was just another victory for Directorate L. The only sticking point was to make certain that we had enough power to keep the grow lights on. With that in mind anyone who wanted to plant an underground tree next to grow-light area needed permission from the Lower-London City Council. Their job would be to check predicted power supply/use and say yes whenever possible. They would also check water availability.

These grow lights emitted a light spectrum that was identical to that part of the Sun’s rays, which is used by plants for photosynthesis. It is known that “natural daylight” produces the color near 6000K (bluish), which is what these “grow lights” also produce. The magic in these bulbs comes from the fact that the engineering teams were able to design these lights with the ability to produce energy waves without producing much excess heat. In other words, they would not produce unhealthy levels of heat, which could be damaging and very uncomfortable in the closed underground environment. And they could be kept on 24 hours a day if needed. These new lights had a projected lifespan of 20,000 hours (833 days) each and the teams were working on a new series of grow lights expected to last at least twice as long. They had solved the problem of long bulb lifetimes, very low heat, as well as making these bulbs energy efficient enough to be deployed. This was a big win. Dr. Tesla was particularly pleased with the new grow lights since he had recently become a vegetarian. “It is certainly preferable to raise vegetables, and I think, therefore, that vegetarianism is a commendable departure from the established barbarous habit of meat eating.” Personally, I still enjoy a good steak – medium well, if you please!

In addition to the grow light advance Dr. Tesla was able to announce that workers who had been investigating possible Martian food production had managed to duplicate the Martian production of blue-green algae. In large vats the Martians had produced this product which could then be dried and eaten after it was cooked into a sort of loaf. The team was soon referring to this product as “manna from heaven” noting that it could very well resemble the food source that was reported in the Christian Bible that was reportedly sent from heaven above to the people wandering in the North African desert.

Earlier one of Tesla’s back engineering teams had disassembled the Martian ‘Manna Machine” found at the Giza complex and found it to be simple but quite eloquent and it used very little energy. Having tasted “mana bread” I must say that it was a bit bland without something on it but it was filling. I hoped I would not be eating it as a steady diet. It was not long before blue-green algae were being produced in stations set up in many of our underground as well as above ground facilities. Once again we were learning from the Martians. Many of us were starting to believe that within only a few decades or perhaps 100 years or so mankind could develop sufficient technologies to live and thrive completely underground given enough time and large enough facilities.

UNDERGROUND FISH ‘FARMS’

In addition to all of the other underground projects Committee science teams had been working on a new idea to safeguard the fishing industry as well as finding ways to produce a reliable source of fish in the event of a protracted war. With that seemingly simple idea in mind came the development of underground fish farms. We were already growing hydroponics lettuce and other green vegetables in large underground water gardens using the new grow lights. That was when the teams came up with the idea of using nearby water tanks to grow fish. The teams were looking for ways to not only use the water in the most effective manner, but needed a way to produce fertilizer for the underground crops. The answer was the fish farms.

The teams built 10,000-gallon water systems that flowed into and out of the vegetable gardens. The wastewater from the fish farm was rich in nitrates the plants needed to grow. They were used to fertilize the plants as they removed the ‘waste’ allowing the fish farms to grow the fish with the water already naturally filtered through the plant’s root systems. First tested in one of our cave structures north of Sydney we were soon building three to six story (down) structures housing large vegetable/fish farms in all major underground cities. Small farms would be built in over 200 locations around the world and although we did not expect these farms to be able to feed large populations they would feed some and be able to safeguard many of the species we most depended on for food, and in the long run that was the main reason for developing this new technology. However, calculations did show that ten such facilities covering an average city block and going to five stories deep could feed as many as 40,000 people on a semi-continuous basis and that was no small fish tale! Within two years even those estimates would be eclipsed.

An additional safety feature was added at this time to all four major underground cities as well as many others. Before the work was completed it was felt that putting a great many miner’s helmets in those cities would add to the feeling that one was underground. However, with the residents now quite familiar with these underground facilities it was decided to put in place some 35,000 brightly colored helmets (blue/yellow) with lamps on them into “Break When Needed” cabinets all around the cities along with two extra batteries per helmet. Next to these so-called “helmet boxes” were 35,000 new hand-held fire extinguishers and over 10,000 large ones in case of small fires as well as small first-aid kits and a few blankets. Most people however, had confidence in the fact that no fewer than eighty underground fire stations had been built and manned as part of each new city. There were also many small volunteer “Fire Teams” around the towns to augment fire support. There was very little to burn, so these men had the additional duty of providing medics available in case of medical emergencies. They would also be required to carry side arms. These were all confidence builders, however the underground crews were working on a primary fire suppression system that when completed would protect at least 40% of the L-streets. This was a pipe fed water sprinkler system attached to the center roof of the main L-streets in case of fire. It was originally designed to attack any local fires, but a secondary purpose was to create a survivable pathway out of any fire danger area. Only later were side pipes to be put in to cover individual buildings underground.

Engineers had also added other new critical safety features into each of the lower cities. Large steel doors had been installed in the major L-streets in order to isolate large areas. Nearly 1000 of these steel doors had been installed in each of the major underground cities, but they could not be activated unless the individual had the code or the “Master Door Key” which could activate the mechanism to close or open them. They could also be activated by operators in the security office for each lower city again by individuals with the proper codes. If the Martians attacked these areas the doors could be set off enclosing them – and for that matter anyone also trapped in those areas. We all knew that some people could not help but become trapped, at least for a while. We also knew that in a war many more could be saved by these newly installed steel barriers. For the most part we all tried to forget that they were there.

On 18 August 1935 the central group issued an Executive Briefing Paper EBP 1935-18 (see Appendix I) focusing on the progress made on the underground cities. By this time much of the work had been completed and the facilities really did have the look and feel of cities at night. What made them work was the overall acceptance and general use by the people of these massive facilities. A separate classified report was also written detailing the work being done on the five underground military facilities to be used as local command and control centers.

[END PART 52]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 53: Science, carriers as Goddard reaches for orbit.]

[PART 51]

‘Martian’ Raiding Party Attacks Earth

When all was said and done this attack on our forces by the Martians (or rather their all too human allies) in Eastern China could only be described as a raiding party. It had come with great speed, it was a short attack and it had been accomplished by only two Martian Flying Machines used as transports and a number of ground forces. Nevertheless, this attack showed the Martians that they could depend on renegade humans bred on Mars to attack Earth under the command of Martians. We however, had learned that we could and would fight, and in battle could go one-on-one with our enemies from Mars even if they were in fact pure humans. This Martian raid had sharpened our will to defeat them at any cost.

For a few days before the raid occurred local observers had reported several Martian Flying Machines in the area over Heyuan, China, around 110 miles north east of Hong Kong. The first landing report came into Committee headquarters in Lower-Sydney on 5 May at 2 a.m. from a radar station in Conghua. The wireless report was immediately forwarded to New York and London by cable where CAIG and Tango groups were put on alert. We also alerted local national military forces in the Guangdong area. They were soon sending out patrols from Canton and Hong Kong to gather more information on what we were dealing with. Naturally local forces were most interested in checking out the landing report but no one at the time suspected that this was anything more than a type of Martian landing that we had seen many times before. We soon discovered that this was something entirely new. We had not seen this number of enemy ground forces for quite a while.

Most of our forces sent out to investigate were British and Chinese colonial forces based in and around the Hong Kong area. They were soon on their way to the small still in construction supply base located five miles south of Heyuan. The base was manned by a small force of Chinese regulars whose main assignment was to guard the new supply depot and the ongoing construction of a tunnel system designed to hold local seed storage in the event of an emergency. The base housed fewer than 40 armed men with an additional 600 plus involved in the tunnel work. It was by no means a large or vital operation. To be honest no one at the time understood the Martian interest in this rather out of the way facility. The work on the base had been ongoing for around ten years with an expected completion date of late 1936. That time table was about to be set back for at least a few months.

Before the ground patrols could make their way to what would soon be called the landing zone an urgent message was sent to Hong Kong. It reported that scouts sent out from the base had spotted two columns of military forces, said to number at least 250, heading towards the base. They were being led by two Martian Walkers! This was something we had not seen before, at least not since the end of the First Martian War. Was this the start of a new Martian offensive?

It did not take long for Chinese forces to launch twelve fighter bombers to the reported area. Simultaneously a world-wide flash alert was sent to all Committee bases and all national capitals that a possible Martian attack was underway in China with an unknown number of ground forces backed by at least two Walkers. In the harbor at Hong Kong the British carrier HMS Victoria was immediately alerted and the ship’s crew began to prepare to make sail. Even before it left harbor it would be launching fighters to the raid area.

FLASH: MARTIAN WALKERS SUPPORTED BY MEDIUM SIZE GROUND FORCES MOVING IN TWIN COLUMNS TOWARDS K-1 BASE SOUTH OF HEYUAN CHINA.

At our Lower-New York City headquarters the Magic Twelve (or rather the five who were in New York City at the time, and two others in London and Sydney by secure cable), held an emergency meeting in the Mars Room. At this point we had very limited information about the situation in China. What we did have was the latest data from our Mars Watch Program. The program indicated that there was no increased activity on Mars at that time which we would connect to a mass invasion. CAIG reports also showed that there were no overt increases in Martian or UFO sightings or any other indications on Earth that other areas were actively engaged in this sort of situation. For whatever reason, this appeared to be an isolated incident which at this point we could not really understand. With these reports in hand the Magic Twelve sent word to Committee and national facilities to go on alert but recommended that cities not close-up their lower facilities at this time. Rather it was recommended that military and police forces stay on high alert with added security measures put into place as a precaution only. What we did not need was the general public in a panic. The Magic Twelve further recommended that the public be informed that these added precautions were only a drill which had been planned for some time. No information on the ongoing “raid” in China was to be given to the public especially since we had so little information ourselves.

Even as we were meeting the first aerial report by our jet fighters came in. They confirmed that two Martian Walkers were leading a group of enemy troops now estimated at around 300. This report indicated that these ground forces were hybrids and that they were moving in Earth trucks counted at 20 and moving north-east fast. The Chinese jets were ordered to attack both columns with special attention given to attacking the Walkers.

Turning to attack the head of the columns, eight fighters came in low and fast making the first run at the Martians. Four other fighters flew high cover ready to engage any Martians in the air. The Chinese attack was to say the very least unconventional. Flying directly over the two columns the first two jets (one each over the Walkers) did not fire a single shot; instead both jets simply buzzed the machines as fast and as close as they could. One jet peeled left as the second peeled right crossing paths which caused the Martians controlling the Walkers to pay distracted attention to the two jets continuing to fly erratic patterns – so much so that the Martians failed to notice the six other jets coming in two directions for their bomb runs. Without much effort according to later reports the first two jets were soon caught in the Heat-Rays of the Walkers and obliterated with single shots. These pilots had sacrificed themselves in order to give follow on jets a clear shot at the Walkers – and shoot they did. At almost the same instant the Walkers had taken out the lead jets the ground around them exploded in fire as two by two the six attacking jets pounded the now fully confused operators of the Walkers. Each had taken at least three direct hits. This was excellent shooting by the Chinese pilots. The walkers were both down and no longer moving, but they were by no means beaten. Partly recovering from the bomb run one of the Walkers caught a Chinese jet as it turned north and simply cut it in two.

By now the truck mounted “hybrids” were out of their vehicles and firing automatic weapons and hand held Heat-Rays at the jets. They would soon come under attack by the four jets which had been in high cover. These jets had by now flown south, turned and in a four plane staggered line formation came screaming towards the twin columns of Martians. At 200 yards they opened up firing their rockets and machine-guns at the line of Martians which destroyed three of the trucks and finished off one of the Walkers. The second Walker, barely able to fire its Heat-Ray, was now clearly unable to move. For all intent and purpose it was also out of the fight. Each jet then made another pass at the columns firing their machine guns as they flew close to the ground.

With the Walkers destroyed the situation became one of conventional warfare when the Martians made their attack on the small base at K-1. Seeing the aerial attack on the Martians the 40 men soon had a hasty defense constructed facing the oncoming Martians. With all of the construction equipment they could bring to bear the 600 man construction team attempted to cover the men now prepared to defend the base with a dirt wall backed by vehicles lined up as a steel barrier. It was a courageous effort, however, with their hand held Heat-Rays it would not be enough to stop the murderous Martians.

The Martians hit the base in a traditional Martian formation from three sides, and using their Heat-Rays were soon burning their way beyond the barricades and into the central construction areas. One of the two survivors, both badly wounded, described what came next.

About fifty of the work crew were able to arm themselves with weapons supplied by the soldiers but we were still clearly outnumbered. The enemy seemed to be everywhere at once shooting almost randomly at anyone they could see. The soldiers were soon fighting hand-to-hand by the main sheds before being pushed to the north end of the base by the sheer number of enemy, taking casualties every step of the way. As the men retreated past a wide tunnel entrance the Martians were surprised by four bulldozers being driven at them by the construction teams. Riding on the vehicles were several soldiers firing at the Martians. They must have cut down 30 or 40 of them (Martians) before they were stopped by the hand-held Heat-Rays. This attack seemed to stun the Martians for a few seconds who nevertheless began to regroup for a final assault on the 15 Chinese soldiers who were still fighting at the north end of the base. None of the soldiers surrendered, fighting with everything they had to the last, but it was a fight they knew they could not win. Fighting fanatically they took as many of the enemy as they could. When the shooting stopped the Martians held captive around 150 construction workers marching them outside of the destroyed base near the streambed. Without warning at least ten Martians turned their Heat-Rays on the men and killed them all with the charred corpses falling into the water. After this murderous act several of the Martians appeared to walk around the burning base killing their own wounded.

A final wireless report from the base transmitted just before the Martians entered the camp indicated that they were being attacked by around 150 Martians. This was taken at the time to indicate that at least half of the Martian force had been killed or wounded by the aerial attack. (An investigation would confirm this report as well as the fact that the wounded Martians had been killed by their own forces eliminating the possibility that any prisoners could be taken alive.) The wireless report also made it clear that as far as they could understand these Martian attackers were not hybrids. They appeared to be fully human. This was the first report we had of pure-humans attacking other humans as a designated Martian military unit in battle. This report was confirmed by later onsite inspection of the base.

Moments after the murders of the construction workers the fighters from the HMS Victoria flew over the base then on fire and in complete disarray. It was clear that a massacre had occurred and that if there were any survivors they would not be found in the base. (One was found halfway in the small stream in some reeds and the second was found badly wounded and burned over half of his body near the west fence concealed behind one of the small trucks.) Orders were then given to strafe the base and kill as many Martians as they could. These four jets made four gun runs on the base before returning to the carrier after which one made a final pass to photograph the area.

Three hours later British Royal Marines backed by Chinese regulars attacked the remaining enemy forces still occupying K-1. The intense two hour battle would cost an additional 15 dead and 26 wounded for our Earth forces. However, this final assault on K-1 killed 87 full-humans fighting for the Martians and one Martian A who had been with the attack forces. The Martian A was reported to be in a full “environmental suit” complete with Martian atmosphere in tanks. It had been transported in one of the Walkers and when it was disabled had transferred to a truck. Five full-humans were captured – all wounded. They were patched-up and taken to Hong Kong and later transported to a Tango “hotel” in Lower-Sydney from which they were never to leave. Needless to say, they were squeezed for a great deal of information before they were “allowed to expire.”

From the body of the Martian A Committee doctors were able to draw samples of Martian A blood as well as other body fluids. The doctors were able to report some distressing news. The Martian’s blood did not appear to have been infected by the virus which had killed the Martians in 1901. However, the doctors were quite clear in their opinions that the Martians had gained at least some form of immunity from the Earth viruses. (“There appeared to be anti-bodies.”) They were using the Martian body fluids to confirm their suspicions. The time was near when the Earth’s atmosphere would no longer pose a lethal threat to the Martians. We were running out of time.

Editor’s Note: This was the first time Mars Prime had sent a military force of pure humans to attack Earth – The results were mixed but the raid did prove humans bred on Mars Prime could be used in close combat with those born on Earth. These new forces would find use in future operations.

THE WORK CONTINUES

At about the same time as the raid we were briefed on a development by the American Du Pont Company. Using back-engineered Martian technology they had been able to develop and produce a synthetic fiber they named nylon. There was hope that this new material would have many military uses.

On 17 August 1933 the Soviet Union launched their first liquid fuel rocket the GIRD-09. The flight lasting a few seconds to a few hundred feet in distance showed that the Soviets were not only developing their own rocket systems, but that they were clearly far behind Committee efforts in this field. We were very happy about that. They were still very much in the mind of going their own way which could very well cause trouble for their Earth bound neighbors. The Committee would have preferred they were, as is said, “with us all the way’ but that was not how the Soviets viewed the situation. Making their own deal with the Martians was thought to be a real possibility.

Nevertheless, during November 1933 Soviet Minister Maxim Litvinov met with the American President to hammer out an agreement in New Washington Center. The Soviets agreed to end anti-American propaganda and to protect Americans in the Soviet Union and in return the Americans would recognize the communist government. However, relations of a sort were moving forward – slowly.

I found myself more on the road then in my new Lower-London office during much of 1934. My most important trips found me visiting Joseph Stalin (Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili) in Moscow with the hope that the communist leader would rejoin Committee operations in our efforts to defend against the now fully anticipated future Martian attack. However, for the most part Stalin related that the Soviet people would still stand apart from the rest of the world. It would seem that he was far too busy killing off his own people to be overly concerned with Martians at least for the moment. We all knew that this man was a butcher of his own people, not to be overlooked, but he was at least, the very least, a “human butcher”! He also related that if and when the Martians did attack he was certain that the rest of the world would fight them so he was not overly concerned.

This was not a very welcome situation to say the least. With his words fresh in my mind I was soon off to New Washington Center for a conference with newly elected American President Franklin Roosevelt (Committee Prince). Roosevelt seemed to feel that Stalin would come around in time but no one close to the Committee felt Stalin could be trusted. Not even the liberal leaning Roosevelt felt that Stalin was truly trustworthy. The Committee was greatly concerned that both Stalin and Hitler, who had come to power on 30 January 1933 in Germany, seemed to be more interested in local power and control rather than larger planetary matters. Divide and conquer was a very real possibility if we could not bring most of the world back into Committee control or at least combined cooperation against our planetary neighbors! It also left open the very real possibility of some rogue nations making side deals with the Martians. That was not a pleasant thought.

Even as some governments were involving themselves in other non-interplanetary matters the Committee continued to develop our world defense strategy. In 1934 Dr. Emil Girardeau from the government of France began to install Committee built radar systems on land as well as on French war ships. These new devices, according to Dr. Girardeau used “a precisely focused apparatus conceived according to the principles stated by Dr. Tesla. On the subject of Tesla’s recommendation concerning the very great strength of the impulses one must also recognize how right he was as before the most difficult thing was to succeed in enormously increasing the strength.”

In America seagoing radar tests were also being put into practice onboard the USS Leary as a destroyer test-bed for the American Atlantic fleet. This work in unison with the British who were developing and deploying their own pre-microwave radar systems around their island nation illustrates some of the many nations that were putting together as many radar systems as possible. More radar stations linked by radio and cable resources meant that military forces in many areas around the world would be able to track the Martians when and if they came and be better able to direct our fighting forces to engage them.

Also in America the Union Pacific Railroad debuted its first powerful M-10000 train, nicknamed “Lil Zip.” Three of these new trains would be purchased and heavily armored as well as well armed with anti-aircraft weapons as moving command centers for the Magic Twelve. One each would be stationed at Lower-New York City code named “Coffee Drinker”, Lower-London “Tea Drinker” and Lower-Sydney “Whisky Drinker”. Each would be manned by one of the Magic Twelve in the event any one of our headquarters needed to be evacuated. The trains would be set to run to a pre-positioned train tunnel which had also been heavily re-enforced. A fourth train was ordered a year later by Stalin which we code named “Vodka Drinker”. That same year the streamliner train named the “City of Portland” set a coast-to-coast record crossing the American continent in 56 hours and 55 minutes! By now the world had not only repaired much of the track which had been lost during the 1901 war with the Martians we had in fact nearly doubled the miles of track world-wide.

In Germany the government announced a major new ship building program. Much of the underground and “fortress Germany” work had either been completed or was well on its way. Now the government felt it was time to expand their strategic naval resources. The Committee received word that the Germans were constructing four new aircraft carriers, 13 battleships, six battle cruisers, 23 cruisers, 22 destroyers (large) 15 attack submarines and at least 45 attack patrol boats.

It was also noted that the French would also add one new aircraft carrier, ten battleships and 32 destroyers to their fleet. All of these ships would be equipped with radar, bristling with anti-aircraft guns and when the technology was mature – each would be able to fire surface-to-air missiles including the submarines. The larger ships would also be carrying Tesla’s new Heat-Ray when and if it was ready to be deployed.

THE DESOLATION OF MARS

Despite all that was going on our planet at the time the most remarkable and notable discovery involved the translation and deciphering of a single Martian Electronic Document (Ref: Martian Electronic Document 61B411). The document which had been discovered years earlier onboard a Martian command craft was not thought to hold any significant scientific or military value and as such things are viewed, it did not raise any alarms. What was shown by the document was a nearly complete set of images of the surface of Mars imaged by a Martian craft that must have orbited their cold planet. For the first time we on Earth could see not only clear close-up images of the enemy’s planet much clearer and much more extant than we have ever seen but clear images of our home world and in great detail. To say the least the images were astonishing. From what must have been low Martian orbit the planet Mars looked very much like a desolate dying world with large areas covered by ancient impact craters while other areas – mostly in the north spread wide by massive volcanic flood plains.

From this vantage point the only marks upon the surface of Mars showing any form of intelligent development were the four (now three remaining) domed cities; the magnificent planet-wide system of water transporting canals and the bands of vegetation upon which the Martians depended, spread along the sides of the canals. These were the markings we could barely see from Earth, as the canals themselves were far too thin to be seen directly from Earth distances.

The photos of the lost Martian city on the southern edge of Chryse Regio showed that it was about as large as the other domed surface cities with one major exception. The city had three off-set smaller domes connected by three wide surface covered transportation tubes heading away from the center city towards the north, west and east. Combined with the large central core area the city which had been lost in 1920 due to the surface impact of the comet was by far the largest remaining surface habitable on Mars. Speculation soon ran to the possibility that the location could have been the primary controlling city and government on Mars.

One of the more interesting areas turned out to be the Cydonia region. It was not unlike the American Colorado Plateau with its sweeping plains and would not be of much interest except for the fact that the Martians (or perhaps others much older than they) had built seven massive pyramids which dominate the nearby Cydonian mesas. Adding to the mystery as to why they had been built (speculation ran to some form of energy producing facilities) was the fact that they had been constructed to represent the three belt stars of Orion (identical yet much more massive than the ones constructed on the Giza plateau) and the four other major stars of the constellation.

Another area of amazement turned out to be the “canal” originally spotted by Lowell in 1894 and named after the Coprates River in Persia. The Coprates ‘canal’ turned out to be a massive rift valley cutting across some 600 miles of the Tharsis desert. This ‘discovery’ also answered the question by observers as to why this ‘canal’ was not intersected by the other canals and appeared to “stand alone and apart from all other canals.” The Martians had run into a fault system that had to be worked around not worked with.

The last big surprise (there were many small ones) was the fact that whenever these images were taken, and it was felt that they were probably quite recent, the most obvious features on the surface of Mars were the thousands of ancient ruined sites both large and small, many of which had been built as large cities on the edges of now desiccated lakes and seas. Whatever the population of Mars is today clearly that world had held a much larger population in times past. This was truly a dying planet on the edge of extinction. Clear evidence that the Martians had no real choice but to abandon their ancient world to seek a new world – Earth! We had no choice but to stop them.

A Final Word from Egypt

1934

“From what had been of the past the gods re-created the heavens upon the Earth…”

Wall of room 618D – Giza Complex

From 15-17 October 1934 a conference was held in the Mars War Room at our Lower-New York City’s Committee Headquarters. Over 200 Committee and international representatives involved in working the ‘Martian problem’ had been invited to attend. Held in secret and heavily guarded the attendees were briefed on all aspects then uncovered as they pertained to the long and mostly unwanted contact between the Egyptian people and the Martians. Primary to these discussions were ancient Cairo and the Giza complex, which included the Pyramids and Sphinx.

The Giza complex had revealed itself to be simply massive with only a small portion of its construction, magnificent as this portion is, visible on the surface. With its miles of underground tunnels and passageways the complex could boost nearly 9200 rooms and storage chambers. It was estimated that some 75,000 people could live and work in the underground facility at any one time. With the grand above ground work Giza had been the largest construction project on Earth before modern times. It was also the most complex, which included an underground fresh water system coming into the complex directly from the Nile River, food production areas, offices where much scroll work had been conducted and a well stocked armory. By now many of the diamond-tipped tools used to work the tunnels and stones of the complex had also been found.

The underground armory had yielded a surprising discovery of an ancient Martian Walker. It had apparently been used underground. The machine was fully only a third the size of the ones we had faced in 1901 and it had an open seated control area, but it would have been truly terrifying when it walked on Earth those thousands of years ago. This one would walk no more as it had been badly damaged by what appeared to be a good many impacts by large rocks or boulders. Clearly the walker had been destroyed by the Egyptians in battle. This was not however the first ancient Walker discovered in Egypt. An earlier Walker had been discovered in Cairo completely by accident – and I mean by accident. A year earlier a local military unit had been practicing with their new tank when it suddenly backed up into an ancient statue. The tank impacted the statue with such force it crushed the surface and produced a deep crack. The crack revealed that it was hollow. Inside was a perfectly preserved ancient Martian Walker which had been hidden behind and inside the ancient carved stone. That Walker was soon on its way to our Lower-London facility. It was this accidental discovery which caused defense planners to investigate ways of fighting against these machines if they were once again deployed on Earth by the Martians against our new underground cities during some future conflict.

Two of the more interesting rooms under Giza located just south of the three primary pyramids in the underground facility appeared to be medical in nature. We had earlier found disturbing evidence of humans being tortured at the complex. What we found in the rooms designated M14 and M15 seemed to give answers, at least partly, as to why torture had been conducted at Giza. In M14 were found thousands of jars, many still intact and sealed, which contained human blood. Each had been labeled with Martian markings. It seemed to the researchers that the Martians were collecting as many blood samples as they could for experimentation and storage. They also found many body parts, mostly internal organs, as well as under developed fetuses – both human and hybrid. (On orders from the Committee the body parts and fetuses (after study) were given a proper burial and a proper stone marking.) They had even collected animal blood and stored many different types of animals some of which no longer roam the Earth.

Room M15 was very disturbing as it showed Martian attempts at creating animal/human ‘kimeras’. These kimeras were long known by tomb paintings as beings “created by the gods” in Egypt with the body of a human and the head of a jackal, or some other animal. Thought to have been purely mythical it seemed that the Martians had actually been able to create at least one viable kimera – the mummy was still laid out on a polished stone table in room M15. The ancient tomb paintings had been accurate after all. Why this was done has not been answered by the documents found with the mummy. A new slave labor force needed by the Martians or perhaps soldiers were early theories.

By now we had discovered human remains with elongated skulls in many areas around the world, but never more than under the shifting sands of Egypt. (Many of these “out of Egypt” sites proved to have some connection with either Egypt of long ago or Martians using Egyptians as pawns for control over ancient peoples.) Yet even in Egypt there was one place which topped them all when it came to the sheer number of hybrid remains – Giza. It was also at Giza that mankind clearly took back their ancient heritage and rebelled against the ‘sky gods’ who had descended upon ancient Egypt in “flying boats” and “craft from the stars.”

It had become evident that a revolt had occurred which had spread to the underground city. The marks of a fierce struggle could still be read on the walls, tunnels and rooms in which close battles had been fought. There were also several areas where the roof of the structure had partly collapsed on top of both humans and hybrids likely as they were engaged in battle. Melted and blackened stones were also found; mute testimony that the ancient Martians had used hand held Heat-Rays those many years ago.

Located at the extreme southern end of the facility workers found the remains of a large number of hybrids stored in stone containers. There was however, no way to accurately count how many had been placed in these large stone containers which had been carved into the ground and then covered over. The ancient Egyptians had killed the hybrids, broken all of the bones and buried them deep underground. The massive stone graves were then covered and sealed with eight ton lids. And although we could not be certain, it appeared that some of the broken bones could very well have once belonged to several kimera who seemed to have been mixed in with the broken bones of the hybrids.

The work below had also served to answer at least some of the age old questions about the three titanic pyramids which hold a commanding view of the windswept Nile. They did indeed have a purpose and it wasn’t to bury a great pharaoh or a king, nor were these simply work projects for the people during the winter months. Ancient scrolls located in room D173, a rather well built and very well hidden chamber, supplied some of the answers. It was written that the three great pyramids at Giza, as well as other smaller local structures were a representation of the constellation Orion and the three largest structures represented Orion’s belt stars of Alniltak, Alnitam and Mintaka. The scrolls also reported that a much larger version of the Giza pyramids could be found on Mars, but we would probably never see them even with much more powerful telescopes. (Perhaps an automated camera bearing craft placed in orbit about Mars could spot them but that would be years in the future.)

The written works of the Egyptian/Martian connection along with many Martian works on the Egyptian underworld were quite literally underground.

Continuing the briefing the workers at Giza had discovered several references which seemed to indicate that the pyramids, at least the three at Giza and possibly others, were somehow used to produce vast amounts of energy for the Martians. This part of the presentation was of special interest to Dr. Tesla who became quite animated at the news. He was determined to find the ancient secrets of this proposed “pyramid power.” It was suggested in the scrolls that the pyramids could generate some type of electrical energy. What the power would be used for or how it would be directed was not explained.

With much work completed we now knew that very early Egyptian hieroglyphics show a remarkable number of symbols which greatly resemble what could be described as the simplest form of Martian written script. This made work on the Martian Electronic Documents a bit easier but going from simple to complex Martian was still a tough task reserved only for the gifted amongst us.

The final amazing discovery at the complex was located at the foot of the Sphinx. A photo team had been working at detailing every inch of the famous artifact when they discovered their heavy camera equipment had moved slightly overnight. When the ground radar team was called in for a second run over the area the new more powerful radar equipment found what appeared to be a small underground room between the feet of the Sphinx some 30 feet below. Drilling a small hole in the center of the “ground anomaly” they broke through to the room. When a small camera was lowered into the opening a flash photograph was taken. When it was developed the image of an ancient Martian A was clearly seen. Two months later when work crews were able to finally enter the room they found that the Martian A had been mummified but had been fully unwrapped before being laid out on a polished black stone table which was then sealed in the underground room by a great deal of wax. It had become an air-tight tomb meant to last the ages. Doctors would later come to the conclusion that the long dead Martian A was in fact a Martian A+, the first ever found on Earth. We were later to understand that Martian A+s were in fact the very small group of leaders who control all of Mars. At least one had come to Earth to rule over humans thousands of years ago.

Work would continue to discover many Martian efforts on Earth as possible with a view to unraveling as much of our ‘combined history’ with the Martians as possible. One area being looked at for future investigation was the fact that the Egyptians were able to make it across the Atlantic to the Americas. Scant evidence at Giza suggested such efforts but some hard evidence has been located including a small stele dated at 900 B.C.E. with Egyptian hieroglyphics on it on Long Island, New York! Some of those markings look very much like Martian script. This would match legends told by the local Algonquin Indians who report that they had traded with “men from the stars” as well as men from ‘across the great sea.” There was a great deal more human history to uncover from our dark past.

Along with the briefings on Egypt we received several reports that many ancient areas where the desert or natural stones had been turned to glass by extreme local heat had made contact with Martians. More often than not these places held high levels of background radiation along with ancient structures which showed that great local battles had been waged in these areas. On almost every continent on Earth we had found evidence of at least some type of off world interference in the affairs of mankind from the earliest times until today. Mankind it would appear had never really been alone at any time during our long history on Earth! And it wasn’t just the Martians who were dropping by to look in on our water-filled world. We seem to have attracted the attention of several “others” over the centuries as well. Who these intelligent beings are, we have yet to discover.

[END PART 51]

Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020

[Next week: Part 52: Antarctic attack as the underground work goes on.]