Warm Welcome

Our landing on the hard packed red Martian soul should've been much rougher than it was. Thanks to Mozzie's expert piloting. The girl really was a marvel; her hands, feet, and tail were a blur as they raced over the controls to bring us safely to ground.

Unfortunately, upon landing it was clear that our passengers hadn't fared as well as we did. After assessing their likelihood of survival, I decided the lost humane thing to do would be to simply remove their cortical stacks and take them with me. I would like to say this was a difficult decision to make, but the fact of the matter is it was quite easy to make once I factored in what a drain on our likely limited resources two additional people would be.

Despite the fact that our merry band was is potentially dire straights, it was marvelous to be back on Mars. Crimson seas of earth encompassed my entire field of vision, and there were a few brief seconds after I exited our escape pod that I was able to revel in the profound silence of my adopted home planet.

Sadly, this meditative moment was shattered by the sound of kinetic weapons fire coming from the ridge before us. In a seemingly slow motion blur of action, my commerades and I were able to commandeer their vehicle, which was a lucky thing since I was anticipating a long journey to my laboratory Noctis.

The luckier find (in my opinion) was the ten units of premium orbital hash I found in the vehicle's supply locker.

I had been expecting the road to Noctis to be boring, but once again we were attacked -- probably by some Barsoomian low lives looking to grab our provisions, or perhaps avenge the deaths of our vehicle's previous owners. Considering how quickly the Martian population had jumped, it was no surprise that some of transhumanity's more unsavory members would be prowling the wastes.

Once again, Mantis and Mozzie proved their usefulness in battle, and information the chance to show off some of my driving skills by using our own vehicle as a weapon against our attackers. I have no doubt that both my friends and our antagonists were surprised by my skill behind the wheel.

When Mozzie offered to take a turn at the wheel, I gladly accepted. I reclined leisurely in the front passenger seat,  inhaled a few long drags of hash, and signed as the troubles and stresses of the day melted away.

Flashback - Loss of Love

<p><i>This is a flashback Dr. Norax is having while blacked out on the decending escape pod. </i></p>
<p>It's always hard to fathom just how much blood there is in a biomorph until you see its entire quantity spilled on the rust colored dirt.</p>
<p>Just how did all this happen? Norax always had trouble forming firm memories in times of great distress, but he had seen his husband slain. His murderers had made sure Norax would witness it, but even as he dropped to his knees in the quickly congealing blood he could not think of what the message they were trying to deliver could be. </p>
<p><i>"No time for thinking</i><i>.</i><i>.</i><i>. "</i> Norax muttered to himself as he began to probe his husband's cranial remains. They had been too broke for an ego backup (due largely to Norax's self-funded research), so retrieving the cortical stack would be crucial. </p>
<p><i>"</i><i>Where is it</i><i>?</i><i>!</i><i>" </i>he exclaimed as his fingers raked through the bloody, pudding-like substance that had been his partner's skull and brain. Finally, his fingers touched what he knew to be a bit of circuitry from a destroyed cortical stack. It was then that Norax realized his love had experienced his final death. </p>

A Wild Ride to and from Qing Long Station

Honestly, yesterday was not the first time I woke up being slapped in the face. However, it was the first time I woke up on a ship I didn't remember boarding with people I didn't know and I had no idea where my medicine was.

Needless to say, I was unhappy.

The last thing I remember I was working with...well, I don't really recall that either. I do know it involved mining. A quick look in the bathroom mirror returned a face I was very familiar with, so I knew I hadn't died. Unlike some transhumans I liked to hold onto a morph as long as possible, so I was pleased to see myself mostly intact.

After a rather bumpy ride on a seemingly derelict space craft, my new found companions and I found ourselves on Qing Long station. I didn't let on at the time, but this was a place I was all too familiar with. Since I've lived on Mars nearly my whole life, I've built a small but cozy network of "unsavory" contacts, and Qing Long is the perfect place for them to nest.

Sadly, before I had a chance to reach out to any of them and obtain some more of my much needed medical supplies, we were involved in a firefight and I even tried defending myself....obviously to no avail. Thankfully my new "friends" are no stranger to the way of the gun, and we were victorious.

Just in time too, because it was then as all of the station's systems failed and we had to evacuate in escape pods. Just before the G-Force from our decent into the Martian gravitational field made me blackout, I couldn't help but smile. Despite the circumstances, it felt good to be home.