Bulldozers plowed under the crystallized body parts. Cranes moved wrecked vehicles.
Atop Mack's floating fortress he and Captain Seton surveyed.
"This should have been cleaned up. Do I have to supervise everything myself?"
"No sir."
"This would be a most unfortunate scene if the press had ventured out here."
Down on the sand, Mack pointed Seton to supervise the operation. "I need to stretch my legs."
"We'll accompany you sir."
"No, no. The battle's long over."
Dead machinery tumbled and crashed, tossed about by the cranes. Seton stuck close to the PM. "But?"
"Supervise these simpletons, or we'll be here all night."
"Aye, sir."
Mack slithered back to the hidden cave in the jutting crag. Down the long snaking tube, he saw that red pulsing glow again.
"Something wicked this way comes," said the Mystics.
Mack entered their cathedral alone.
"Mystics."
The three ladies materialized and floated in circles around their phallic glowing red stalagmite.
"Ah, Prime Minister. You deign to visit the indigenous?"
Mack held his gun at the ready. "What are you?"
The three creatures maintained silence, although they glanced cattily back at him. Their circcling motions hypnotized his vision.
"How did you know? Answer! How do you know these things?"
The third Mystic spoke without moving her mouth, "Knowledge is power."
The first also vibrated her sounds, "I will grant you one answer, Prime Minister."
The second. "As will I."
"To total three," said the third.
Mack lowered his weapon, and he stressed his brain.
His Mystics flew in dizzying red pulses.
Their psychotropic movements weakened him,and he didn't know what was real. He shook his head about within his helmet. "Will Banks' sons still rule Mars now?"
"But of course. And you knew that already."
"Will they come for me?"
The second locked eyes with Mack. "None born of woman can harm you."
Mack's face glowed. "What of my office? My position as Prime Minister?"
The third bowed her head gracefully. "You shall rule over Mars until the rocks and the sand themselves rise up against you."
"Oh! Miraculous! Glorious!"
They began to fade, but Mack panicked. "I need to know more!"
The Mystics reappeared to floated over and surround him like circling sharks.
"Tell me everything." He spun with them.
The Mystics flashed their teeth and their eyes.
Mack fumbled for his gun again. "I command you, as your Prime Minister."
Laughing, the three creatures faded back into the Martian ether.
"Bitches!"
He was left alone and craving more.
Atop his floating fortress, he nodded his approval. The battle site had been scrubbed, bodies buried. The large machines lumbered away.
Above them on the horizon, a swirling sandstorm threatened. It had come from nowhere.
Seton watched. "Back inside, sir. Sandstorm!"
"I see it." Mack grinned up at the plumes. He waited until the very last second before dropping into the hatch. His fortress shot off to get clear of the weather.
As the storm hit the mass grave, layers peeled off and exposed the corpses.
