Tonstar Rising Ch. 02

Welcome back gentle reader

The continuing story of the changing of Mars and Thadius Tonstar, First of His Name.

If you are a new reader, this serves as a prologue to Jebidiah's Change. I hope you enjoy. My writing has been so focused on Jeb I had to do a find/replace on this to switch everything over to Thadius. Hopefully their personalities do not bleed together much.

-- Chapter 2: Mars, USNA Naval Base, Fort Denning --

-- March 24th, 2384 A.D. 5 AGR --

Often you don't know whether a woman is a friend, enemy or lover until it is too late. Sometimes, she is all three.

- Jordan

Thadius hated saying 'so far, so good' because, as the age-old joke goes, eventually you run out of floors. When they were preparing their defenses, Kami had asked how things were going, and not even an hour ago, without thinking, he had replied 'so far, so good' in some sort of twisted prophetic response because he had just run out of proverbial floors and hit the ground.

Projectiles slammed into the hastily erected barricades that Thadius used for shelter from the attacks of Brusset's men. It had been two tendays since he had discussed his plans with Kami, and she had gone and put the plan in motion, dragging him along for the ride. With the loss of New Atlantis and massive population decline in the scant few years since, the civilian government had ceased to exist, leaving the military as the only surviving organized group to fill the power vacuum. Friction promptly started within the ranks, first between the surviving branches, with the Marines removing the Navy from the power structure by virtue of sheer numbers. Next, the pre-existing rift between the 1st, 3rd, and 8th Marine Armies escalated as each ruling general fought for dominance. With the death, or execution depending on who you asked, of General Matherson of the 3rd, the various brigades began infighting as well, jockeying for political power.

Thadius' bright idea had been to reinstate a properly elected civilian government to oversee the military, as it had always been done in the USNA, and stop the infighting to preserve what was left of the dwindling human population. It sounded good to him, being biased as he was since it was his idea, but Kami absolutely loved it and began recruiting co-conspirators to help pull it off. The problem with conspiracies was they required enough people to pull it off, but for every person involved the risk of exposure went up exponentially. Thadius and Kami found out their scheme had been exposed a few hours ago, which led to their current predicament. Stuck in a hallway with a hastily erected barricade leading into a single room with a single exit. The wall their backs were against was not proverbial and very real.

The firing stopped, and a voice rang out, "Come on out Tonstar, no need for everyone to get killed beside you. Any of you others, Tonstar has led you to your demise. Kill him for us, and we promise you will leave alive."

Thadius yelled back, "Fuck off, Carter. I'd call you a prick, but scuttlebutt claims you never had one to begin with. Just the other day, Kendel was saying you are the reason she switched to women." A fresh fusillade of projectiles hit the barricade in response. "That struck a nerve," Thadius thought to himself with a chuckle before he sobered up again. This plan had better work.

When news of their attempt to usurp the military leaked, several opposing camps that were actively fighting each other called a truce and joined forces against Thadius and Kami. The enemy of my enemy was dumb logic but it proved effective and Thadius wished he could have found an application of it. Colonel Brusset, a complete asshole before the world came apart let alone after, had sent someone he knew would never let Thadius walk away from the confrontation, his good friend Sergeant Carter accompanied by his fellow goon squad. After their confrontation in the mess a few tendays before, his goons unsuccessfully attempted to orchestrate several unfortunate and possibly fatal accidents for Thadius. His continued existence was fuel enough for their rage, and Thadius' plan counted on them to stay angry and stupid.

Thadius had time to set up more than one barricade in the hallway, three to be precise, with a fourth and final just outside the doorway to the room which he was planning on sealing up tight when the time came. Carter was under the impression several defenders were behind the current barricade, and Thadius had no plan on disillusioning his attackers of that falsehood. There was, in fact, only Thadius on team defense. To keep up the pretense, he very rarely returned fire. Only three times to be exact, and two of those shots had landed, resulting in satisfactory cries of pain. Soldiers didn't tend to mind charging into rapid gunfire. The spray-and-pray heavily relied on the praying part, and a majority of those types of shooters aimed high, not really wanting to kill a fellow human. It is surprising how safe it is to charge someone spraying bullets like they have no care. Methodical gunfire, especially when it was coupled with a high hit percentage, was another beast, a much scarier one.

The plan was to hold the attackers at bay as long as he could, period, his only objective was vying for time. It was a simple plan, and as he finished wiring up the last of the booby traps on the first barricade, he felt confident of succeeding. He had started setting traps at the doorway and worked forward to where the attackers would start. It allowed him to have prepared emplacements to fall back on instead of all the good stuff up front, but it handicapped his fallback plan because he had to make sure he did not set off his own traps during his retreat. Not for the first time, he mused about the video games he played where one could trample his own traps all he wanted without worry. Shortly after the final traps were in place, the attacks had begun, and Thadius' methodical defense started taking a toll. A few more rounds of incoming fire and he spotted another brave soul making an attempt to probe his position. His fourth shot managed to take out his opponent's kneecap. The shrill scream was grating on the ears but very, very satisfying to hear nonetheless.

His fifth round found the shoulder of the next man stupid enough to try and pull the screaming, kneeless idiot out of the line of sight. In the back of his mind, he worried about the level of training the current batch of Marines was receiving. His sixth round was a bit high and missed; the fucker ducked down at the last second. He wasn't trying to kill any of them, though, truth be told, Carter had to die just because he was Carter. No other justification was needed in Thadius' mind. After nearly an hour of this cat-and-mouse shit, Thadius saw the next escalation coming as a now rare and costly flashbang grenade sailed into the hallway, skidding to a halt against the barricade. Thadius had just enough time and coverage to deflect and neutralize the effects. He knew what was coming next and moved to the second barricade before the assault rush took place.

The attacker easily breached the first barricade once they charged en masse, but their momentum was brought up short as one of the equally rare, and now equally costly, claymore mines Thadius had rigged to a trip wire exploded. For those closest to the mine, wounding wasn't really an option as the steel ball bearings ripped through their bodies before becoming embedded in the more (or less depending on how you looked at it) shielded bodies behind the newly dead. The screams weren't exactly shrill like mister kneecap, but they made up for it in volume. Shots seven and eight both connected with the soft tissue of those trying to remove the screaming wounded. Thadius found himself almost enjoying the last few hours of life he might have.

It was several hours and a lot more screaming before Thadius found himself behind the final barricade. He had outright killed at least two full rifle teams and wounded at least two squads worth of a full platoon. By himself. The Marines had really fallen on hard times if this was the performance level they now held. Pre-cataclysm they would have taken Thadius out in the first fifteen minutes with a minimum of casualties. Behind the third barricade, the one he had just abandoned, he had strung a carbon monofilament, too thin to really see with the naked eye, across the hallway about ankle height. When the first two attackers ran into it, they immediately crouched down to grab their legs where the fiber bit deeply into the muscle only to have their face meet the molecular cutting wire that was also strung across the hallway. That one was an absolute bitch to get into place with the tools available, but seeing the top parts of the heads of his foes slide off, exposing brains? Priceless. The two behind them, seeing how the first two had bent for their legs, correctly guessed there was a wire of some sort in play. In their rush, they both opted to leap over the other two, only to sail into the monowire they also couldn't see with the spectacular result of cutting both of their feet off, about halfway up their shins. Thadius had to shudder at the thought of what sort of pain was involved in landing on the stumps of what remained of your legs.

By this time, a majority of the attackers were in position in the long hallway, taking some measure of protection behind what was left of the barricades they dismantled to reach Thadius. He decided it was time and shut the doorway to the room, sealed it, and sent off the prepared message via the hardline wire that they had installed that morning. The attackers, what was left of them anyways, sensing victory surged further into the hallway and helped the last of the screamers and clear the last of Thaidus' traps. Just in time for the final part of the plan to come together as Kami launched two frag grenades into the corridor, one near and one far, trying to launch the second far enough to hit the now closed doorway. In the confined space of the hallway, it was a bloodbath as the shrapnel from the grenades bounced around until they met yielding flesh.

In later years, it would be told how Thadius had held off a full company, killing a full platoon and wounding the rest, with none of his attackers leaving unscathed. In truth, he and Kami did kill a full platoon, but he only wounded a second, not a full company, leaving a few soldiers untouched. One thing the tales did get right, when the fighting died down, Thadius found Sergeant Carter still alive, holding some torn scraps of shirt against his head where one of his eyes had been punctured by shrapnel. He begged for mercy as Thadius dug his finger into the remaining eye, permanently blinding Carter. "Listen, Carter, you may think me leaving you alive is a mercy, but I guarantee that you will find killing you would have been the mercy you beg for."

Thadius won that day; General Brines of the 1st was killed, and Colonel Brusset grabbed what supplies he could and fled with the remaining elements of the army group. A loyal regiment from the 1st refused to leave with them, remaining to be integrated into the 3rd. The new elections resulted in a new General Secretary and General Committee, though there was no House, senate, or really even a judiciary. The remnants of the Navy had taken to fill the ranks of the court as most surviving members were JAG lawyers. In appreciation for Thadius' contributions, he was elevated to General and given control of the 3rd.

-- Mars, USNA Naval Base, Fort Denning --

-- September 3rd, 2384 A.D. 5 AGR --

"General Tonstar! There's another runner here with a message."

Staff Sergeant Renner wasn't the worst adjunct Thadius could have imagined, but he was far from the best. Thadius rarely had alone time together, not to mention public time together, with Kami. Renner's banging on the office door that accompanied his yell killed the mood that had been developing in his office. Kami sighed and slid off his lap, letting Thadius pull his zipper back into place.

"Send them in!" He yelled out with a definite notch of rancor in his voice.

The door opened, revealing a cute, petite blond Marine, very diminutive in stature. "Private Henton reporting, sir!" the blonde said with a smart salute.

Thadius returned a brief salute with an "At ease, Private. Give me your report."

"Sir, yes sir! The medics sent me to advise the General that there are now four casualties from the unknown source in the infirmary. They request your presence, sir!"

"I said at ease, Private." He looked her over again, taking note of how loose her uniform was on her small frame. He had a nagging suspicion and voiced his concern. "Private, you sound fresh out of boot camp. When did you graduate?"

"Sir! This Private graduated seven tendays ago, sir!"

"Please, Henton, wasn't it? We can forgo all the 'sirs' for now. Tell me, were your fatigues fitted for you when issued?"

"Sir, um, general, sir, um, yes, they fit when issued, sir. Sorry, sir."

"It's ok, never mind the 'sir' stuff, carry on as you can. Have you shrunk since your fatigues were issued, or did they expand?"

"Sir, I have lost approximately 7.3% of my biomass in the last seven tendays. The infirmary is tracking and ready to supply proper medical service, but they are unsure of any actions to take, sir! I am otherwise healthy, sir!" She was putting on a brave face, but he could tell there was concern being masked behind it.

"Very well, Private. Inform the infirmary I will be down momentarily. Dismissed."

When the door shut, Kami finally spoke from where she sat. "No one has any idea what's going on, Tad. The hit to morale is noticeable, and we won't be able to keep what's happening in the infirmary quiet for long. You know how fast gossip travels. Luckily, the rumor mill is so full of wild speculations that the truth is safely obscure, even though it is the front runner."

"I know, Kami, but I'm no doctor, and Earth isn't available for help. We had finally begun to rebound from the last few years and now this. If there was a god out there, he has a sick twisted sense of humor when it comes to 'his people.' Guess I need to make my appearance in the infirmary and at least act like I may have a plan. You coming?"

Together they made the trek to the infirmary, and a trek it was now. The main building for Ft. Denning was a large square structure situated on the bank of the Riktern River. The outlying support buildings spread out around it and, up to a few years ago, lined the beachfront along the ocean. No longer. As the southern sea receded, the natural deep harbor and bay that made the location the most desirable setting for the Naval base transformed into cliffs a few hundred feet high. In the first year, an elevator was planned, but with the power sources continuing to fail, those plans were abandoned. Instead, they went with plan B. A series of ramps were cut into the cliffside using laser cutters, and the work progressed quickly until it didn't. About a third of the way down, the laser cutters ran out of power, meaning the rest of the ramp work would need to be cut by hand. With the economy in shambles and the valuation of money in question, no one was willing to work in the very dangerous conditions for the pittance in wages that were on offer. The project had been abandoned.

Plan C was for a different kind of elevator. Two abandoned ships' anchor chains were attached to a huge wheeled mechanism with oxen attached to provide pulling power. The chains themselves were attached to a large platform which, very slowly, could be raised and lowered via oxen power. It was to this elevator that Thadius and Kami ventured. It took nearly an hour to wait for the elevator to reach the top, then deposit them at the bottom. More walking brought them up a series of ramps to what was once a lava flow channel, only years before buried far below the ocean surface but now exposed. The tunnel was nearly twenty feet in diameter and smooth enough to make this part of their journey faster. Nearly two hundred feet in, they came to a magma chamber that had a subfloor added, allowing the construction of walls and rooms enough for a large, secure infirmary tucked away from prying eyes and ears. As the crow flew, Thadius was slightly under a half mile from his headquarters, but the walk took them two full hours.

"Talk to me, Dr. Carter." Thadius wasted no time with the pleasantries when he spotted the doctor in charge, walking rounds with clipboard in hand. He wasn't sure where he stood with the good doctor; it had not been very long since he blinded and exiled her nephew.

"We have four more that were found unresponsive this morning. That makes seventeen this tenday. Word is starting to get around."

"How many did we lose?"

"Two are no longer Human. One, a huge man, turned into a troll, and we lost three enlisted while dispatching the troll. I don't need to tell you the security issues and ramifications all of this brings."

"Have you found a cause? Any link yet, any way of predicting who is going to be affected? We need information to combat this," Kami asked.

"In a manner of speaking. All four of this current lot, it is their name day."

"Their birthday? Are they the same age?"

"Not birthday, name day. For each of them, this is their tenth name day."

"Have you backtracked the other cases? Did everyone go comatose on their tenth name day?"

"For all that we can verify, yes."

Thadius thought that over some. "So this is tied to the planet, an environmental issue."

"Wouldn't it be biological?" Kami asked, confusion in her voice.

Dr. Carter was of the same mind as Kami. "I would tend to agree. We have seen no sign that these changes are caused by any external factor."

"How many biological processes are triggered by age, I mean an exact age, like at midnight on your twelfth birthday?"

"It is well established that the female menstrual cycle has a rhythm we as a species have relied on for a long time."

"Yes, and it's closely tied to the lunar cycle length, but it can and will change, plus the onset is unique to each female. If it was a biological component, we have evolved to terran specifications just like our sleep cycles and how hard it is for immigrants to adjust to our day length. The odds of us adapting to something Martian in nature, in large quantities of cases, in the first or second generation are zero, followed by a lot more zeros than are in my paycheck," Thadius joked.

"We're getting paid?" Kami said in mock surprise.

"You're not. They pay me to put up with you." Thadius moved on before Kami could come up with another retort. "How long before they wake up, doctor?"

A piercing scream, loud and shrill enough to cause physical pain, erupted from one of the beds nearby. "Guards! We have a changer! In here, now!" Dr. Carter began a panicked series of cries for help as she rushed to the source of the screams. Thadius and Kami followed close behind to find a young man thrashing in his restraints. The patient's face began to bubble as it contorted in pain and rage, the portions of his arms that were visible bulged where they shouldn't, looking more like snakes roiling just under the skin. It was truly horrific, the image of which would haunt Thadius' dreams for years to come.

"He looks like a bad sci-fi vid with shitty CGI! What the fuck is going on?" Kami exclaimed as she grabbed a thrashing leg to help steady the boy.

"The change is not pleasant for most. Well, all of them so far, but they are at least unconscious up until the point where the pain reaches a threshold just at the end," Dr. Carter panted as she held onto the other leg.

Thadius reached across the boy's chest to hold down both shoulders in restraint when a set of tusks violently burst forth from the patient's lower jaw in a spray of blood punctuated by the distinct sound cracking bone makes. The blood splashed flecks on Thadius' face made him pull back as he cried out "Holy fuck!"