Ablaze Publishing, 11222 SE Main St. #22906 Portland, OR 97269. TRAVELING TO MARS, created by Mark Russell and Roberto “Dakar” Meli © 2022 Arancia Studio s.n.c., Mark Russell. All rights reserved. Ablaze TM & © 2022 ABLAZE, LLC. All rights reserved. For the English edition: © 2022 ABLAZE, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Ablaze and its logo TM & © 2022 Ablaze, LLC. All Rights Reserved. All names, characters, events, and locales in this publication are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events or places, without satiric intent is coincidental. No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means (digital or print) without the written permission of Ablaze Publishing except for review purposes. Printed in Canada. For advertising email: info@ablazepublishing.com
Apparently, spaceship battles are not like how you see in the movies.
They’re far more boring.
As I’m sure you know, there is no sound in space.
Thus, no whirr of the engines. No ear-splitting laser battles.
If someone’s on your tail, you can’t just slam on the brakes and hide behind an asteroid.
You fly in straight lines, propelled by inertia. It takes days. Months, sometimes, for your pursuers to overtake you.
Still there.
We , sh t. I’m go a get lunch.
Most of which is spent wondering what sort of dirty work they have in store for you.
All you have at that point is time. And hope.
One of the reasons space battles are so boring is that spacecrafts carry remarkably little fuel on board.
I asked Dr. Rubens how it was that our pursuers were able to catch up to us when we had such a big head start.
Once you burn through your initial thrusters to get your momentum going, you’re more like a raft on the Mississippi than a fighter jet or race car.
The hope of living long enough for something else to kill you.
He reminded me that we were able to be the first in space because the Eazy Beef Corporation didn’t spend too much worry on building a spacecraft that could bring me back home. Apparently, their competitors were able to build faster, more dangerous spacecraft…
…because they didn’t care if their passengers made it to Mars alive at all.
“To buy their employers time.
From the images you sent me, it doesn’t l k like these craft were even designed to land on Mars.
So, then, what are they doing out here?
“Time to put together their own landing craft which they can land on Mars. Crewed by people they do want to k p alive.”
My best gue is they’re simply out there— —to destroy you.
