"INVADER" PROLOGUE

It was the year 2322 by Mars standard calendar. Prime Minister Sakki Frederick strolled casually into the upper balcony of Folcon dome capital senate house. He lowered his hands to grip the cold railings. It was night again on planet Mars, in the region of Zylat. The buildings that made up the city were a brilliance of multiple points of light in the darkness. High above hung the dome’s shimmering fields.

Prime Minister Sakki had read history, so he knew much about humanity’s original world, planet Earth. He knew that back then on Earth humanity had thought it considerably difficult, to maintain a habitable colony on the red planet. But here they were today. Twenty centuries, according to the data archives.

For twenty centuries they had managed to thrive on the unfriendly world. Sakki read in those piles of history books that life on Earth when compared to Mars in its earlier years of human colonization, could be equaled to the contrasts of heaven and hell.

Perhaps it was such habitable indulgence that drove the people of those times to get complacent. The achievements that had been realized on Mars so far were referred to by historians as quantum leaps of progress in relative time-management evaluation.

So it could easily be concluded that a comet impact that brought with it a noxious gas to wipe out every life on humanity’s original world rendering it uninhabitable, on the other hand, also helped humanity think faster. At least fast enough to have predicted and prepared for it, to an extent. Not many human beings survived the catastrophe, but today two thousand years later, humanity had produced numerous offspring, and was carrying on.

Even when he was alone, Prime Minister Sakki was not the kind that showed a smile when he was excited or happy. Not a mannerism he was born with, but rather one he came to adapt to. He sent his constantly grim face above the tall buildings of Folcon dome...a smile hung in the veil of his mind as he did, for that was the one place he felt free to smile.

The dome’s artificial magnetic field that also served as an active solar receptor and regulator was partly translucent. The vibrant orange gleam shimmered brighter at night. Folcon dome was one of the largest dome habitats on Mars among thousands of others distributed to various parts of the planet.

The long conceived idea of planet-wide terraforming had failed but the Martian Science Conglomerate was currently working on an atmosphere processor that would treat not just the inside of a dome but the entire planet. Men like Minister Sakki hoped they would live to witness such an achievement.

Sakki was a happy man on this day but there were things that had saddened him until now. There would have been more domes because Martian colonist population was constantly on the increase, but the dreadful and ever threatening sundka virus was spreading and leaving death counts in its path at an alarming rate.

It had completed two decades since the terrifying disease was first discovered. And in those twenty years a possible cure had completely eluded Martian scientists and medical experts. No one accurately understood the Martian virus’s pattern.

A quick flash of memory flared in Minister Sakki’s mind. His only brother Nikatta, on a sick bed in a medical house of Varea dome. His body was covered in green boils and he bled from every possible opening of his body; nose, ears, eyes, all over. His death had been slow and painful. The medical experts tried everything possible but the S virus eventually took him...as it had taken many others at the time.

That had been six years back. Right now Nikatta was part of history, and Sakki had to let go of such memories. His major concern in present times, and as the number one leader of the United Martian Government, was the survival of humanity as a whole.

The S virus threatened the very survival of the human race. A decade and half ago the Martian medical team had thought they could contain the disease, but now sundka was showing humanity that it was an unyielding powerful force.

The only option, and the best option now that everything else had been attempted, was the possibility of another habitable planet. Sakki leveled a sterner gaze at the brightly dazzling fields.

That was the thought that caused him to smile in his mind. Captain Peterson Everson of Taurion Fleet two of the United Martian Navy was on his way back from a promising journey into distant space.

Sakki could not wait for Peterson and all the brave men that went with him to return home with the good news. For over ten years they had scoured the far reaches of space in search of a safe haven, now it had finally happened.

Even though hyper-spatial drives were invented many years back, it was in these times that it had finally proved its saving purpose. At first, the main involvement of the Martian Spacing Union upon the founding of hyper-space travel had been the search for alien life...until the S virus emerged.

It was when the virus lingered for more than half a decade that Operation Planet Seeker was initiated by the Spacing Union. The United Martian Navy also offered their best ships in regard to the same mission; and as fate had it, the Navy having been involved in the search for as little as three years, had found a viable habitat.

Prime Minister Sakki Frederick yawned widely, after which he felt the heaviness of his eyes. Even though the excitement would not allow him, he had to get some sleep against tomorrow. Tomorrow was the big day...hopefully.

The message via COMM was not very clear and was roughed with static, so tomorrow he hoped to get better details of the discovery. Sakki turned and retired into his private quarters with another yawn.