Free Warzone: Nemesis: A Novel of Mars by Morris Graham Page A

minute.” COL Red Fangs studied the globe before him patiently while the captain did the math.
    “Sir, the terminator line will cross Landau Crater at zero nine thirty Zulu, July 18 th . Sir, in relation to the terminator, I can put you down with roughly over four days of light just after the Soviet satellite passes over. The Soviet satellite passes over Landau once every two hours, has a good visual and can take instrument readings for ten minutes. You have a little less than two hours from landing until the Russkies leave their post to pay you a visit.”
    “Affirmative. Take us down, and try to avoid their satellite for the longest period of time you can.”
    “Aye, sir. I’ll send for you when we’re ready to land.”
    “I want all the build time we can get in daylight, but dark when the Soviet tanks arrive. One more thing Captain, I want all of the high-resolution pictures of the landing area I can get, along with laser imagery. I need a very clear 3D topographical map of the landing zone.”
    “Aye, sir.” They were still on radio silence. He opened up a laser digital pulse line-of-sight communication in Morse code to the other ships, advising them to fall in formation behind him in orbit. They would be sending their landing zone coordinates and time when ready. The captain completed the topographical survey for the colonel and sent it by way of his first officer twenty minutes later.
    COL Red Fangs thanked the young officer and sat down to a cup of coffee to study the proposed landing zone where he would build his post. He took a sip of coffee and opened the file…
    Landau Crater
    Coordinates-41.6 °N, 118.1 °W
    Diameter-214 km or 132.97 mi
    Depth-3.25 km or 2.02 mi
    Colongitude-121° at sunrise
    Frost Crater is overlaid on the center of the southern rim, seventy-five km in diameter. The inner wall is wider and heavier along the northern side where it has been reinforced by the former rim of Landau. Wood Crater is inside of Landau on the northeast side, seventy-eight km in diameter.
    The colonel considered the size of the crater, his mind exploring the possibilities for the best post construction. Given it was a hole approximately two miles deep and 133 miles wide, it was unlikely the Soviet hovertanks could scale the walls if they were steep enough. He quickly thumbed over to the topographical pictures CPT America had given him. The captain combined topographical laser imagery with other known satellite images, constructing a remarkably accurate 3D model of the crater. COL Red Fangs studied the walls until he found what he was looking for. The walls of the west side of the crater were extremely steep, with the exception of a pile of rock slabs. The rocks were overlapping one upon another from the bottom of the crater floor, winding up at a sixty degree angle overall from north to south, changing angles to as steep as seventy degrees in some spots and dropping downward to twenty degrees in others. He thought for a moment. That crater edge would be a great place to position the back of the post, effectively cutting off half a circle to defend. There was only one weak spot, the natural staircase. It would be easy enough to put a few gun turrets, and a guntower or two close to the place where the Soviets would ascend, but he genuinely didn’t want to deploy much defensive hardware there. If the Soviets saw the rim’s edge heavily fortified they wouldn’t come up that way, and the investment of their defenses, which were badly needed at the front, would be wasted. Unless…
    LTC Judgment Day was reading a scientific report on Luna over a cup of coffee when COL Red Fangs found him. After the customary salute, COL Red Fangs sat down, opening the file of maps and technical data of the Landau Crater.
    “I found something of interest to us.” The colonel slid the topographic map of the Landau Crater to his XO. “This natural staircase here,” he said, tapping his finger on the spot, “is a way the Soviets can