The Great Martian War 1913 - 1917 Page #7

annihilating everything and

everyone in their path.

This has become a rout.

And it is exactly

what High Command

had hoped for.

The triumphant aliens,

charging after the

retreating troops,

are heading right where

the Allies want them.

The whistles sound and th

wardens open the gates,

sending thousands

of infected horses

stampeding through the

ranks of retreating soldiers

towards the Martians.

We had to drive the horse

back towards the line.

We lined up at

the back of the pen

and we shouted at them,

screamed at them, hit them.

And I was glad I was

wearing my gas mask,

because I didn't

want them to see me.

And once they panic,

they'll all go in a herd

even the old cart horses

They'll get the scent

in their nostrils,

and they'll follow, too,

and that's what happened

Bang!

Away they went at full gallop,

right into that fury, that hell.

The infected

horses are engulfed

by the alien advance.

To the soldiers on the ground,

this action seems both

horrific and futile.

The alien force resumes

its pounding action

towards the coast,

without any clue that the fatal

blow has already been struck.

And that the day and indeed the

entire war are finally ours.

Operation Trojan

Horse has delivered.

The invading army never

reached the coast.

Within days and within hours,

the Herons come to a

complete standstill.

In each of the cockpits,

the lone pilot is rapidly dying.

The symptoms are

always the same -

frothing at the mouth,

grossly swollen

respiratory tract,

and in their single lung,

a fatal accumulation of fluid.

Simply put, they drowned

Two day later,

the Allies proclaim

victory around the world

Victory, but a victory

won on the hardest terms.

Two million were lost.

Now, let me be quite

clear about that -

that's two million that Allied

command were willing to lose.

It was an immense price,

but it was the price

that was necessary

in order to induce the deep

systemic infection of the alien

that was needed for us to win.

In the immediate

aftermath of the war,

the infected horses and

millions of refugees

struggled to survive in the

ruins that was once Europe.

In the squalor,

the glanders virus spreads.

As it does, it mutates,

and soon becomes

an airborne contagion

that easily infects the

mass of susceptible humans.

Over the next five years

the death toll

from "Martian flu"

would reach 100 million.

One casualty is

young Clara Logan.

She died in 1920.

It was nearly the end of it.

She was one of

the last it took.

She was 23.

Was it me?

Was I one of the guys

that brought it back?

Maybe.

I didn't know.

I still don't know.

All I knew was...

she was gone.

As Europe begins

to put itself back together,

the Martian nest sites reveal

their immense

stockpiles of victicite.

The contents of

the alien nest sites

were the biggest,

and most valuable

prize of all waiting for us.

Vast quantities of victicite

presented humankind

with enormous possibilities.

The products of victicite

become a vital part of

the modern world.

This organic metal,

with its ability to

perceive and respond,

opens up a

technological gold rush.

I'm constantly surprised

at the number of our visitors

who just don't seem to realize

how many aspects of modern life

can be traced right back

to the Martian war -

So many advancements

that we've made

in telecommunications,

in science and engineering,

and in medicine -

even in travel.

They can be traced right

back to this time, to them.

Kim Lafonde

has grown up in a world

that has prospered through the

widespread use of victicite.

But the key to the

Martian code she uncovered

in her great grandfather's cabin

is set to question the

benefits of this progress

Kim may have lifted

the lid on a warning -

the invasion is not over.

My family, at some point,

we forgot my great grandfather.

I was born nine

years after he died,

and 21 years later,

I came here and

opened up that trunk.

The things that he

learned about the war,

those things survived.

They remain in this book

and they were here

for me to find.

In his study

of these notebooks,

the historian

Lawrence Hart believes

that Gus's Anishinaabe heritage

granted him a unique

perspective

on the alien symbols,

and led directly to the

cracking of the Martian code.

Hart has completed the work,

and applied it to the

collected alien texts.

To his surprise,

many appear to be very

personal writings,

even laments.

These are not unlike our letters

and diaries written by our own.

Now, this symbol here

is the most common symbol

translated in the texts.

We find it over and

over and over again.

And the nearest word

I can translate is this

But most extraordinary

is the text recovered fro

the Westminster Heron.

Hart is convinced it wasn't

trying to obliterate London,

but offer a warning.

These are some

of the key symbols

that make up the text.

Now this first row here

the alien describes himself

as a warrior that

represents all warriors.

Now here, he says that

he has been deceived,

like we will be deceived

Hart believes

that the deception

described by the Westminster

alien is that their race

was itself once invaded,

and infected by a parasite -

the same parasite that drove

them to invade Earth in 1913 -

to infect us.

The text goes

on to recount how,

a long time ago

in their history,

their planet was invaded

by an alien species

whose technology was powered

by this symbol here -

a thriving metal

that feeds on life.

The strange metal material

described in this translation

Hart believes is victicite.

Victicite has long

been recognized

as a form of life

in its own right.

So ask yourself this -

What is a form of life

that takes possession

of another species,

that modifies its host behaviour

to dispense itself in

even greater numbers?

What else if not a parasite?

But that is precisely

what victicite is.

If Lawrence Hart is right

and the aliens were

infected carriers

forced to spread the parasitic

victicite across the galaxy,

then what next for us?

Now it's our turn to stand

at the gateway to the stars.

It's our turn to reach

out to the void of space

and our turn to carry and spread

the parasite yet further.

How can you win a war, when

with every blow you land,

you're only making

the enemy stronger?

This one was for

the last offensive.

It's says "bravery",

but I say it was crazy -

because I'd have to

be crazy to go back.

We just volunteered!

And do you know the

first thing we learned

when we were in the army?

Never volunteer for anything.

Two girls, one boy.

That's what we're gonna have.

My whole life since then...

I've been waiting for

them to come back...

But I don't know...

I don't believe they ever left.

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