The Martian colonies won their first battle against Vladimir Gorkiy. When orbits align, will he attack the colonies again?
As head of the United Martian colonies, Abigail needs to make reactors to power Phobos station. Once they can harvest the immense metal asteroid, 16 Psyche, they can build the defensive forces to handle renewed attacks from Earth.
On Earth, Gorkiy prepares another assault on Mars. With more funding, he builds a larger fleet, carrying more troops, with a better plan.
Time is against them. Can they defend a second assault when the Hohmann transfer window reopens? Will Phobos station be ready?
Can Austra lead the team Mars needs to survive? The risks are immense. Can she save Mars?
The Martian colonies won their first battle against Vladimir Gorkiy. When orbits align, will he attack the colonies again?
As head of the United Martian colonies, Abigail needs to make reactors to power Phobos station. Once they can harvest the immense metal asteroid, 16 Psyche, they can build the defensive forces to handle renewed attacks from Earth.
On Earth, Gorkiy prepares another assault on Mars. With more funding, he builds a larger fleet, carrying more troops, with a better plan.
Time is against them. Can they defend a second assault when the Hohmann transfer window reopens? Will Phobos station be ready?
Can Austra lead the team Mars needs to survive? The risks are immense. Can she save Mars?
Olivia, a gaunt, white-blonde northern Russian, walked to the enormous sapphire crystal windows and looked out. Her icy blue eyes surveyed the green fields that glistened with dew inside the dome, and the dead red-orange clay in eerie stillness beyond. Outside the dome was a quick death, asphyxiation, freezing, or radiation, whichever came first. The line was thin, and life on Mars remained precarious.
On the ashen surface of Mars, in the tallest tower of the Russian colony, Olivia Svard checked the time. Seeking more heat from her fireplace, but unable to bend, she twisted the iron poker into the logs in the flagstone hearth. She rubbed her side where the assassinâs bullets had shattered her body armor and shredded her insides. She had been strong, powerful, a special forces operative in her youth. Now she felt every year of her age, brittle, and full of the weakness she loathed. Done with feeling cold, she stoked the fireplace, an anachronism she had insisted on, high atop her new office in the steel and glass tower.
Her com beeped, announcing the arrival of her guest, and with her health failing quickly, she needed this interview to go well.
A Russian company commander, Captain Alyona Kovshova arrived in full Russian military uniform, medals, sidearm, and boots. Her black hair tied in an austere bun, wearing little makeup, she trusted in her youth to color her cheeks. Her athleticism gave her an angled jaw, tensed for the interview. She saluted smartly, and Olivia returned it while she stood by the fire.
Olivia looked over the younger womanâs uniform, searching for any signs of weakness. âDo you know why youâre here?â
Alyona opened her mouth, then abruptly closed it. âItâs best not to guess.â
Olivia nodded. âDonât worry, itâs not going to be one of those formal meetings.â
Alyona looked at the roaring fire and back to Olivia. âIâm guessing that since you are now the sole leader of the Russian colonyââ
Olivia turned and held a hand up. âYes. Previously, the leadership had been run by two men, both now dead. When Anatoly Gromyko obeyed orders from Earth to kill Nikolai Yegorov, his co-chair, I killed Anatoly, ending the leadership dispute.â
Alyonaâs eyes widened. This rumor had never been confirmed.
âAs I had once been Nikolaiâs executive officer, I am now interviewing for my own executive officer, second in command, and if I die suddenly, you will serve my successor.â
âIâm honored.â Her eyebrows raised âBut I have many questions.â
Olivia was distracted by the memory of killing Gromyko. She had been Nikolaiâs executive officer and his lover.
The spacious office had custom furniture, including an immaculate white suede set of couches, and Olivia finally offered her a seat and said, âAt ease.â
Alyona took off her hat and sat rigidly.
Olivia smirked. âWhat do you drink?â
âYou have whiskey?â
âI do!â Smiling, she walked to the wet bar and said over her shoulder. âLet me guess, you were sleeping with some American?â
Alyona looked shocked, as Olivia intended. Alyonaâs color rose. âThatâs quite a shift in tone. Youâre still my commander.â
Olivia handed her the drink, sat opposite her, and crossed her legs, smiling. âNonsense. We are two Russian women, in a glass bubble, trapped on a foreign planet millions of kilometers from the snowy fields of our fathers.â
Alyona sipped, frowned, and sat back, stunned by the drink. âThis might be the best whisky Iâve ever had.â
Olivia said, âDa! I got it as a gift from Abigail Marten. Iâm halfway through the case.â
âThe head of the American colony? She owed you a favor?â
Olivia sipped. âThis job is about more than military strategy. It has subtle politics, deal making, coercion.â
âEven with Americans?â
Olivia watched her closely. âEspecially with Americans.â
Alyona shifted in her seat. âI am not certain this is trueââ
âAsk me a question and see if I lie.â
Alyona frowned, swirling the strong whiskey. Four months after the insurrection, she was being elevated to second in command.
âWhy are you picking me as your second? Was it because I was one of the new troops? You wanted to insure their loyalty?â
Olivia frowned. âYou proved your loyalty during the coup. I donât trust most of the shits that are up here now. Many are good engineers, but too many were selected to come.â
Alyona understood. âParty loyalists.â
âThat or worse, some Politburoâs cousin, the nephew that canât keep a job. What worse backwater to push these idiots to than Siberia?â
Alyonaâs eyes went introspective. This was a nightmarish idea to consider.
Olivia nodded. âIncompetents in an environment that rewards mistakes with death.â
Alyona looked concerned, but she was Russian. This was always the way.
Olivia decided to level with her. âYou made sense to me. I saw you wouldnât throw away the lives of your soldiers.â Alyona had to look away from the intensity of the truth. âIs that better? Ask another.â
âWhy did they try to overthrow the leadership?â
Olivia liked the younger woman, decided the truth was probably best, at least to start, and said, âThe problem was the asteroid, 16 Psyche. Do you know it?â
Alyona, a younger, fit athlete from the Russian military academies, had little use for astronomy. âIt was the M-class asteroid the Americans wanted, no?â
Nodding, Olivia said, âIt was my idea to take it first. Snatch it from under the Americanâs noses. Their satellites watched the surface, verifying our troops were surrendering and rebuilding, not massing or readying an assault.â
Alyona had been leading those troops.
âThis was your operation?â
Olivia nodded. âYes. I thought it up. We were still repairing the dome, but we had tons of methane for rocket fuel. I thought it would mitigate our loss in the war and put us back on top. Imagine crashing that much metal in the shadow of Arsia Mons! Over 10,000 quadrillion U.S. dollars! Weâd have been rich! Bartering with the Americans, controlling metal prices, all manufacturing dollars would have gone through us!â
Alyona gasped at the wealth. Russia was notoriously poor, still.
Olivia smiled. âIt was quite the prize. My spies heard the Germans wanted it, and our stupid war pushed them together with the Americans, and together they could get it before us.â Olivia raised her drink, âUntil President Gorkiy sent those two rockets from Earth to attack.â
The rockets had tanks, troops, including Alyona and her company, part of an entire battalion for the conquest of Mars.
Olivia watched her. âAfter the conflict, I stole the rocket and seized the initiative.â
Alyona warmed by the whiskey, the fire, with her head swirling from hearing the truth instead of having to infer it between the lines, said, âMoney, a mission, stealing from the Americans, who could object? Whereâs the conflict?â
Olivia nodded. âAnatoly Gromykoâs supporters discovered my bold plan and hijacked it. Their contribution was to demand the asteroid be crashed not by Arsia Mons, where only Russian miners could get it, but into the American colony.â She stopped to drink and watched Alyonaâs reaction.
Alyona put a finger into her uniform collar to loosen it. The heat rapidly rose as the idea of the cold-blooded murder of two entire colonies settled in.
Incredulous at first, Alyona sensed it was true. This was a career-militaristâs thinking. âThis got dark quickly, even for Russians.â
âYes. To murder every German and American while they slept. All the engineers, air, water, and food, would all be dead and gone.â
Alyona said, âWerenât there rumors of a coalition? All Martian colonies trying to bond together, build a new world? Couldnât we have taken the asteroid and bargained?â
âGorkiy had just lost a land war and assumed the Americans would ignore the law, and take the asteroid by force. Gorkiyâs plan was simple, to destroy their rivals utterly and ensure hegemony over Mars in one bold maneuver.â
Alyona eyes darted around the room as she drank, considering the magnitude of the war crime and if it would even be considered part of a war.
Olivia watched her closely, she had to be certain Alyona would have made the same choices. âYes, fail in the war, and murder in the peace.â Olivia paused. âIt was thought we could easily subdue the Australians and British colonies after. The Chinese colony would be expected to remain neutral as Russian authority consolidated.â
Alyonaâs lips pursed. âThey decided it was best to kill them all and you refused?â Refusing orders was a clear and treasonable action. There was no room for debate.
 âI was clear. We would be rich bullies, not genocidal monsters. I didnât want to go down in history as the most murderous woman to have ever lived. They began the coup to clear me out of the way.â
âWhy did you allow the Americans to take the asteroid? What changed your mind?â
Olivia wasnât sure what to say. âFirst, the Americans called and wanted to help me defend against Gromyko and his coup.â
Alyona grimaced. âForeigners would have only made the situation worseââ
âOf course. I refused. I couldnât guarantee their safety.â Olivia drank. âI told them to fight for control of the asteroid. Anatolyâs allies were barricaded into the control room. I couldnât stop the asteroid in time. Also, I needed their help. We trade with the Americans for water, air, food, and technical equipment. The fools on Earth are certain that weâd âmake doâ somehow.â
Alyona thought of suffocating slowly and looked out at the deep blackness beyond the dome.
âAlso, and here Iâm a little embarrassed.â She shifted uncomfortably. âThat stupid American politician on Twitter. She was already drafting a Declaration of Independence for Mars.â
Alyona looked outraged. âDa âmer!â She cursed floridly and ended with, âYou believed this?â
âDa, the colonies need each other. I felt being the rich, powerful colony, would be enough. Trading the metals to the Americans would make us rich! I convinced Nikolai to back my plan. Anatoly disagreed, shouted, threw things, and after the meeting, reported everything to the Supreme Leader of the Communist party.â
âVladimir Gorkiy.â
âGorkiy wanted the asteroid for himself and began betting on futures contracts for the price of iron and nickel to tank, and demanded Gromyko hijack the operation and kill the American colony. Gromyko picked the loyal followers that Gorkiy told him to, and the planning for the coup began in earnest.â
Alyona nodded. âBut you won.â
âWhat Gorkiy and Gromyko overlooked was that I had been special forces. When the Russian assault forces failed to take the Russian colony or to destroy the Germans in their war, I greeted the special forces rescued from the battlefield personally.â
Alyona nodded. âWe started with an entire battalion of twelve hundred soldiers, including four companies of special forces with tanks, troop assault carriers, set to take over Mars. Only six hundred and fifty of us survived.â
Alyona continued. âAfter days sitting in their vac-suits, captured, stuck in sand, marooned in red deserts on a hostile world millions of kilometers from home, you were our savior.â
Olivia had to know. âWhy did you listen to me instead of Gromyko? Why did you stop the coup instead of help it?â
Alyona looked for her answer, first in her drink, and then in the fire. âWell, you rescued us. Gromyko and those others were the idiots who put us on Mars in a losing position. For their mistakes, we would die.â
The survivors were brought to the airless Russian colony and set to finish repairs and pressurize the dome. They had one week, or their suits would run out of oxygen. The Americans rushed a shipment of compatible oxygen packs and given them an extra two days to finish the repairs.
The Americans then took in the entire German colony as refugees.
Olivia exhaled and looked at the gun hidden in her seat. Sheâd lost her train of thought.
Alyona filled the pause. âBesides, I saw you, a strong woman, and decided Iâd had enough of those old men leading us. Their cold hands fumbling over our bodies.â
Olivia saw her look away and understood. There had been plenty of that when she was climbing the ladder as well.
Alyona continued. âMy soldiers saw you as special forces, one of our own. Handling the typical mess created by the bureaucrats, making the best of their terrible work.â
Through her leadership, they completed dome repairs, made enough gas to pressurize, and survived.
âWithout your leadership, the time of our death was clear and certain. Weâd look inside our suits, read the oxygen, and calculate the time weâd die.â
Olivia had waited for extractions from dangerous assignments, sometimes while bleeding from gunshot wounds. She understood.
Alyona said, âWhat of your part? Did you catch Gromyko yourself?â
Olivia startled back to the present. âI had been thinking of just that. Yes, I shot his guards in this room and then his knees.â
âWell done.â
âGromyko was a soft playboy. He liked the ladies, politics, and blackmailing. He led people to kill but had never done it himself.â She drank.
Oliviaâs eyes were far away, in memory. âWhen people came to kill me, pointing guns, it was not my first time.â She drank again.
She had killed the young recruits and arrested Gromyko, torturing him for the rest of his plans, names of co-conspirators, and anything else she wanted to know.
âI sent Nikolai to gather loyalists and organize the resistance. I stayed behind to squeeze Gromyko for the rest of Gorkiyâs plans.â
Alyona had more questions, but Olivia had already remembered too much and wanted to vomit.
âYou negotiated the deal with the Americans to tradeââ
Olivia stood. âEnough for now. Know how we got here. Know more Russian troops will be coming when the Hohmann transfer window opens. Be ready to dig in, and donât get caught unprepared.â
âYou mean, keep a gun nearby, like you?â
Olivia nodded and moved to walk her guest out.
Alyona stood, turned.
âOh, and remember, Iâm letting the Americans dig for fossils under the canyon.â
Alyona said, âGood looking Americans, with whiskey?â
Olivia smiled. âSee if you can pick a handsome one and work him for information, da?â
Alyona smirked. âIf one of them is too good-looking for me to stop myself, I might have to.â
She finished her drink and took her leave. Turning at the door she said, âAre we sure Gorkiy will be sending more troops in the next transfer window?â
âIf oil and gas prices are propped up, heâll have money for war.â She sipped to soothe her stomach. âHell, with the windfall from shorting the commodities market, he might have all the millions he needs to launch anyway.â
Alyona already knew this. Gorkiy called her often. She nodded politely and left.
Revenge of Azazello is the second book in veteran author Scott Mariâs excellent political science fiction series, Assassins of Mars, and as a tense follow-up to the action occurring in book one, it should be read as a sequel rather than a standalone novel. Characters return, many in new or expanded roles, to get the fledgling Mars colonies back on their feet after the devastation of the assault by Russian troops sent from Earth. But, the story is as much espionage and political thriller as science fiction and made for satisfying and riveting reading from start to finish.
While a wedding is celebrated early on, Abigail and Meinhardtâs storyline takes a step off the line of scrimmage this time and focuses on getting the now-united Mars colonies to prepare for the anticipated and renewed attack by the Russians once the Hohmann transfer window is regained. The cooperation between the colonies is a unique vision, with almost all the heads of state being women. While maintaining the formalities of traditional diplomatic relations, the womenâs behind-the-scenes friendships were a great part of the story. The relationship between Austra Ubiytsa and Olivia Svard was especially compelling, and I was quite affected by Oliviaâs later storyline. I liked that Captain Alyona Kovshova may not be what she appears to be.
I enjoyed how the author puts his characters through their paces as the logistics for a large-scale and expensive invasion are worked out and set in motion. Vladimir Gorkiy must get the money to make his dreams of taking Mars come to fruition, so he sends his best team to where the quickest source of cash is to be found and exploited: the oil fields of Turkey. The machinations Bellwether, The Behemoth, and Pietro must go through to guarantee the needed funding sources were surprising and interesting. In addition, there was definitely a real feel for the concept of supply chains throughout the book.
Besides the desperate race on Mars to develop and build defenses, the leaders there know that preventing the expected assault from ever happening would be an even better strategy if it werenât for the near-impossible odds of such a plan being successful. Gorkiy is the one person back on Earth pushing to gain control over Mars, and heâs got all the resources of the former Soviet bloc on which to draw to make his play. So my favorite storyline is the suicide mission to assassinate Gorkiy and stop the invasion from going forward. The team attempting to do this is an unlikely match-up of assassins and includes Azazello, whose name is featured in the bookâs title. Azazello has long gone off the rails, but he drifts even further off the mark as the mission progresses, making for an excellent and shocking resolution in which he most assuredly gets his revenge.
The book is entertaining and absorbing, and I was driven through its 500-plus pages by the need to find out what would happen next. The multiple storylines were easy to follow, each one compelling on its own and riveting as a whole. With a couple of loose ends still unresolved by the bookâs end, I am hopeful that book three is planned for the near future.
I recommend REVENGE OF AZAZELLO to readers who enjoyed ASSASSINS OF MARS and the entire series to those who enjoy science fiction with the excitement of a spy novel or political thriller.Â