章 16: The Message
I had made a huge mess. Fire alarms of the building had activated, and crowds of people were running around. I was still in the pilot's seat. Since the deceleration wasn't so sudden, I didn't have any serious injuries. Luckily, I had not landed on top of an innocent pedestrian minding his or her own business.
I looked to my side. Suddenly, the man who was sitting at the co-pilot's seat got up and started running away from the shuttle. When I looked back, I saw the corpse of the other man. He had probably died during the explosion. His body had been completely burnt.
I quickly unfastened my seatbelt, grabbed the device that contained the message for the president and got out of the shuttle's debris. I started running into a random direction, trying to stay inside crowds. Just then, I saw the two fighters turning around and coming to fly over the crash site. They slowly flew past and boosted away from the region afterwards.
Some curious people have gathered around the crash site to see what happened. After a while, I saw police vehicles rushing towards the building. Looking around carefully, I searched for the armed men in black uniforms; but I couldn't see them anywhere.
"Intersol won't be happy." I said myself, thinking of the destroyed shuttle. Then, I realised something. The police could retrace Intersol's rental customer info and find out that I was in charge of that shuttle. I could lose things that were more important than money... It could be a smart move to turn myself in before they figured things out themselves. But before I did that, I wanted to take a look at the message myself. I wonder what those people had to say to the president.
'PRESIDENT MELIK OF PEOPLE'S FEDERATION OF MARS
BANNING TWO INNOCENT POLITICAL PARTIES WILL BE THE LAST OF YOUR GOVERNMENT'S MISTAKES AGAINST DEMOCRACY. THE MARS INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT AND THE BLACK ARROW EXPECTS TO BE GIVEN ACCESS TO THE ASSEMBLY BY 2200 CYDONIA LOCAL. WE ALSO DEMAND THE RESIGNATION OF BALTAR ORUN AND SAMIR ARTAS OF SOCIAL WELFARE PARTY. IF YOU DO NOT COMPLY, A RANDOM LEVEL ONE HOSTAGE WILL BE EXECUTED.
DO NOT TEST OUR PATIENCE.'
A threat message. No wonder why they were being so 'careful' about it's delivery.
"Wait a minute." I said. At the end of the message to the president, there was a seemingly random chunk of data. It wasn't using the standart civilian or the government file system... It was using a military file system partitioning and encryption. Only a skilled Army or Navy officer could notice this.
I had to use a Navy computer to access the data. I gave up on my plans to turn myself in to the police, and decided to get to the headquarters. I could avoid getting arrested by simply stating that I was on an intelligence mission. The Navy needed me, and Grand Admiral Rashid wouldn't let me get arrested anyway.
I had to get to the headquarters before the police have identified me as the suspect. From a government starport, I got on a shuttle and flew to the higher reaches of the huge mountain Olympus Mons. From my landing spot, I walked to the headquarters. I got a Navy uniform and quickly found a general purpose computer to decrypt the data.
'---===DECRYPTED OUTPUT===---
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER,
A SHUTTLE WILL DEPART CYDONIA TOMORROW AT 1530 HQ LOCAL, TO FLY TO PLANET EARTH. KEY FREEDOM FRONT PERSONNEL AND I WILL BE ABOARD THAT VESSEL. INTERCEPT AND CAPTURE THE SHUTTLE. DO NOT LET THE SHUTTLE PASS!
- REAR ADMIRAL TACHIBANA
---===END OF DECRYPTED MESSAGE===---'
"You sneaky genius." I said. "You knew I would find a chance to peek into this, didn't you?"
I was now sure that he knew the president would be flying away from Cydonia the moment they let me go.
I had to find the Grand Admiral and notify him of this message. I ran to the Grand Admiral's room, but this time, I wasn't let in.
"The Grand Admiral is talking with the President." the guard said. "Come back later."
Of course... This is probably why the President flew to Olympus.
"This is urgent." I said. "This is a life or death situation."
The guard looked at me like he was annoyed by my persistance. After a while, he gave up and sighed.
"Wait here." he said and entered the room himself. After half a minute, I was let into the room. The President and The Grand Admiral were talking to each other, standing near a table. There was a map of Mars surface and settlements.
The Grand Admiral saw me entering and we saluted each other.
"What brings you here, Commander?" he asked.
"Sir, there is a very important message you need to see." I said. I handed over the device to Grand Admiral Rashid. He did not even bother performing a security scan on the device, amd opened to see the message. His facial expression suddenly changed.
"Where did you find this?" he asked.
"I... I went to Cydonia, sir." I said.
"And where EXACTLY did you find this?" he forced me to explain everything.
"The Freedom Front." I said. President Melik's eyes lit up. "An... infiltrator gave this to me."
"An infiltrator?" the Grand Admiral was understandably confused. I got closer to him.
"I found Rear Admiral Tachibana there." I whispered.
Grand Admiral grumbled. He started scratching his short beard.
"What is it, Admiral?" President Melik asked.
"Please take a look at this, Mr. President." he said and showed the messages to the president.
"Those vermin..." the President muttered. "Are you sure this is a reliable source? What if it's a trick?" he then asked.
"With respect, sir." I said. "He is a rear admiral of our Navy."
"Was." the Grand Admiral corrected me. "He was marked 'Missing in Action' a while ago."
"He knows what he is doing." I said. "I believe him."
"Thank you for delivering this very important message, Commander. This will be very important for our upcoming decisions for action. But what do YOU want to do?" the President asked.
"I believe the Rear Admiral, and I don't think he is a traitor." I said. "I want to intercept and capture the shuttle."
"No, no, no." the Grand Admiral interrupted. "In a state of civil war, even the closest friends can become enemies... although I don't endorse your 'friendship' to begin with."
"Sir-" the Grand Admiral didn't let me talk, and continued himself.
"You won't be getting orders from a missing admiral until he returns to the headquarters and is marked 'in service' again. Plus, even if he is saying the truth, we don't have any vessels available for this task right now. We can't break the formation of Homeland Defense Fleet or the Shadow Filotilla." he said.
"The Lodos could-" I wanted to speak again, but I was immediately cut by Grand Admiral Rashid once more.
"The Lodos can't even fly straight at this state!" he raised his voice. "Commander, you have done what you can. This was an invaluable service. But stay in the headquarters until you are given any orders and don't create additional problems."
"Yes, sir." I saluted the Grand Admiral, glanced over to the President and left the room.
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