After nearly three weeks of preparation for this mission, it would appear that virtually everything is in place and is ready to go. Though I had no idea at the time, the chemical compound that I had saved during that terrorist attack, turned out to be Kapton. What we basically use Kapton for is to insulate the ships to protect us from the extreme cold of space. Without it, we would have froze to death up there, very quickly. But, that aside, we were successful is all that matters at this point and now we're finally ready for this mission to action.
It is impressive how well the workers of the Facility, have repaired it, given the extent of the damage is sustained. The Launch Platform, when I had seen it the day after the fire was put out, looked like it would never have been able to be used again. But, within the three weeks it took us to get prepared for the mission ahead, they manage to get it back to one hundred percent operating capacity. We were fortunate that the Colony ships weren't on the platforms yet. They were scheduled to be there four days prior to the attack, but someone lost that part of the shipping manifest, so they weren't sent until a week ago, they only just arrived two days ago. It would appear we caught a break with that one. In any event, I am now headed to the Launching Platform. We have a total of forty Colony ships, each one of them carrying about twenty two people, including the supplies that we need. We also have twelve Cargo Freighters, which we are using to transport the mining equipment and machinery. They carry three Industrial Mining Laser per ship, which splits it three ships per base camp. I'm on Colony Ship number sixteen, which is to drop down on the area for Base-Camp two. Colony Ships numbered one-to-ten are going to Base-Camp one, eleven-to-twenty to Base-Camp two, twenty one-to-thirty to Base-Camp three, and thirty one-to-forty to Base-Camp four.
There are not many engineers on Colony Ship sixteen, but there are many scientists on there, including Alex. Though I do understand why, sadly, Prof. Donavich will not be joining us on Mars. But, he will be doing his best to coordinate us from Earth, with whatever long-range communication devices that can be scavenged. Alex is the one who will, more or less, be in charge of everyone while we are actually on Mars, with Paul and myself to help. I just hope I like whoever else will be on the Colony Ship besides Alex, since I'll be spending nine days with them, in less than comfortable accommodations.
After I finished with my own personal packing, I headed to the Launching Platform which held Colony Ship sixteen. I guess it's time to greet my fellow passengers.
"Welcome Walter, to your new home for God knows how long!" shouted Alex from afar.
"Don't remind me!" I shout back. I noticed that he laughed at what I said. That made me realise that, even though this mission could determine the fate of Mankind, we are not fighting a war, we are not soldiers going into battle for some last ditched effort to save Humanity. We are scientists, setting out to do what we do best, while we are also trying to save Mankind. "You know Alex," I said when I wasn't so far away, "this is the last thing I imagined myself doing."
"I know what you mean. But, I bet you that's what the soldiers who fought World War III thought as well. No one believe that a World War III would have even happened." he said as we began loading up into the Colony Ship. "I would have assumed that Humanity would have learned its lesson after World War II and the Cold War, which also did become World War III."
"This is true." I said. That's when we heard a man behind us.
"Is this Colony Ship sixteen?" he asked. When I turned around to answer him, I noticed that he was in his mid thirties or so.
"Umm. Yes, this is Colony Ship sixteen. Who are you if I may ask?" I said.
"Oh, how rude of me. My name is Joseph Grott. People call me Joe for short. Pleasure to me you." he said sincerely.
"Pleasure to meet you too Joe. My name is Walter, and this here is Alex."
"Pleasure to meet you Joe." he said and shaked his hand. We all seated ourselves next to each other and we waited for everyone else to arrive.
"Pardon me for having listened to your conversation, but were you discussing World War III?" he asked.
"It's alright, and yes, we were." said Alex.
"Well then, I think I can say that we have something to discuss during our voyage then, don't we?" he said. The way he said that had made me chuckle a bit.
"I suppose we do." I said.
It had taken about another hour before we were finally ready to launch and when we did launch, it was an experience I had never expected, but I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it. Fortunately, everything went off without a hitch.
As our journey had begun, it quickly became obvious that we would be dependent on one another for entertainment. So, everyone gathered around Joe as if he was that one kid telling scary stories at the camp fire, except there was no fire and these weren't scary stories, these were war stories. Joe Grott is a veteran of World War III and is still currently in the military today as a Sergeant Major with the Marines. He is also one of the Marines assigned to this mission to help maintain order while on Mars.
