The virgin & the bad boy (Gravity)

B2/Chapter 11/General Kipperbatch

Dante's POV.

Dante was in the control tower watching General Kipperbatch's ship arrive. He looked around, Dan was fooling with his idiot of a blonde intern Catherine. Dante stayed away from the interns. She looked familiar but all these Martians girls looked alike, tall thin, slender, pale and slightly squeaky.

The rocket pad was under tight security. Landing and take off was when a rocket was at highest risk. The whole thing was a secret but given the place was full of interns it was hard to know if the resistance had heard about it or not. Dante suspected the internships was general ASS's way of making the earth humans less secure and gave it an excuse to tell them less operational planning information. ASS had still been unable to catch the shadow or the other terrorists, it was getting desperate and suspicious.

The ship landed tail first, flames hurtling out of the base of the huge ship. Unlike passenger flights the military people were as per procedure, already awake and suited up. Dust kicked up and you could feel the observation tower flex at the impact of the wind made in the nearly airless vacuum of Mars. Even before the ship hit the ground the ground cars rushed to the landing site. A rocket is large temping target, even in a secure area like Equatorlanding Fields. Everyone was tense. 

****

Later Dante was waited by the garage air lock as the small fleet of vehicles arrived. He did not feel the sense of relief most of the other troops had. For them this meant they were going home but not him. Dante was a figurehead and figureheads didn't get to move around.

The hatches confirmed the seal the pressure was brought up in the doors opened. Out stepped general Kipperbatch. He stood in a formal military command space suit which was in a solid gray. Insignia covered his arms and a row of medals over his chest plate. His shoes shone brightly like the day they were made.

"Welcome to Mars Zhickararie" said Dante formally as Zhickararie emerged from the car. He was followed by another command robot. Zhickararie pointed at the robot.

"It's General Kipperbatch" Zhickararie said. He had aged "The great father has seen how ineffective the force here is. This is MASTER. The great father sent me and this as an upgrade to your tactical computer ASS. It's far more to the great father's liking and operational style. It's a lot more ruthless than your previous systems. There will be no more treating the locals with kid gloves"

"Just how much more ruthless?" said Dante.

The MASTER robot pulled out a rail-gun and shot ASS. ASS fell to the ground.

"I take command," said MASTER.

"That much more ruthless" said Zhickararie.

"I'm glad we didn't have robots like you around 200 years ago." said Dante "Oh wait we did. FYI Your intelligence controlling computers should be smart enough to know not to shoot a gun inside a semi-pressurised area you could hit a supply pipe and blow the pressure" said Dante it was the same kind of message they passed out to the rookie soldiers from Earth.

"I knew about the danger," said the robot looking at Dante "I just didn't care."

"Don't keep it to yourself. It's OK to tell me how you really feel. I won't judge" Dante came back.

Behind Zhickararie more robot soldiers and fresh off the production line came out carrying a cylinder between them. Mars might be a backwater in the war - the main front was around Venus but these machines were here with some dark intent.

"Finally you brought the cappuccino machine I ordered. Take it to my quarters. Be careful when you plug it in. Martain electricity is different" said Dante.

"It's not a cappuccino machine," said Zhickararie.

"Well if it isn't it, looks just like a type 9 e-three twenty thermonuclear bomb. I hate it when Amazon-interplanetary get the orders mixed up. I'm not sure what we could do with one of those and they make lousy coffee tastes all 'radioactivey'" said Dante. 

"It's powerful enough to blast a Martian city it a nice brown stain." Zhickararie " MASTER here computes that demonstrating we are willing to remove a city that has been infected with revolution, will be enough to force subservience on the local population."

Robots came over and took the previous lifeless robot general ASS away for recycling.

"Seriously. Your're going to blow a city up? Have you thought about cutting their allowance and forbidding cinema trips first?" said Dante.

"The first will be tested within view of a major city. If that fails to quell any rebellious activity then we have more" said MASTER.

Dante looked at the bomb it was smaller than he expected "So which city am I supposed to cross off my Christmas list?"

"There is an abandoned ghost colony not far from here. I saw it on the way down it's called FiveDogs. Don't worry its uninhabited, non of your precious potato eaters will be killed. Not unless we have some criminals we can pinout in the desert to measure the effectiveness." said MASTER.

"We both know we need to be careful about what goes on here. Killed too many locals word will get out, the war for Venus will be doubly hard and what is more important you could bring currently neutral Mercury into the fight." said Dante.

At the outbreak of the war, Mercury had declared itself officially neutral. It was one of a few places with the resources and more particularly technical capabilities to build a robot army big enough to take on the earth's swollen fleet. Public opinion on Mercury was evenly split and any rise in sympathy for Mars, the moon or Venus would be enough to push the planet to war against Earth. Publicly Earth recognized Mercury's neutrality. Privately plans were being made quietly and steadily for any future battle with Mercury. Currently, the solar system's attention was on the fierce fighting on Venus. Like Mars, the colonies were highly valuable as much as they were vulnerable. The sky cities of Venus had seen the war on mars and were able to bite back harder. If or when Mercury would change it's position was constantly debated.

"Typical Banks, over thinking everything. As always." said Zhickararie.