A Dragon's Bite - Part IV

14th March

Old Settlement, Artemis, Freehold territory

After I had a successful negotiation with the American President, Yohn returned to Artemis following a successful operation at Jinshan to take out Jianyang and Earth loyalists. The two of us then decide to go speak with Mr Jianmin, the head of Jianyang, who is our captive.

Walking through the office block that until two days ago had belonged to DELOS, was easier said than done. Everywhere you went, even the hallways, there were people crammed. Running, typing, yelling, tearing out their hear... what once took a couple of minutes to walk through, now took ten. The DELOS offices had been taken over as space for the new government. Not that it had really been taken over, since the majority of the staff had stayed on. Most of them are supportive, or at least interested, in seeing an independent lunar state, I surmised from that. The reason that there's more people than usual, is because of the additional workload that comes with trying to form a new country and fight a war. Staff reinforcements have come from the Justice Association and Huesong. It's a mess. If I had the time or energy, I would try to make it better, but I can't. Everyone is so busy and absorbed in their work that most didn't notice me and Yohn walk past. I get tired and frustrated at people staring whenever I walk the streets, so this is a welcome change.

After we manage to get out of the office block, me and Yohn begin walking through the Old Settlement. Walking around here with someone else from the first twenty brings back memories, even if there's also two security guards with us. I can almost picture in my mind what this looked like seven years ago. The blocks surrounding the Old Settlement were only just beginning to be constructed by the robots. It almost felt like we were out in space. The few buildings we occupied, and the paths between them were the only parts lit up, so much of the cavern that would one day be Artemis was dark. It was terrifying sometimes. Looking out away from the settlement, all you could see was the vague outlines of the half-built blocks, and the whir of an army of machines at work.

The four of us are headed toward one of the old warehouses that had originally been used to store food, water, oxygen masks, blankets, and just about anything else we had needed in those days. Now, they were officially empty, but they were in fact used to stockpile and hold much more interesting things. Mr Jianmin is one such thing. During my speech proclaiming the creation of the Freehold, Yohn led a group of Artemis Energy security guards into Jianyang's office block, and seized control of the building. Mr Jianmin, along with a couple of other high-ranking officials within Jianyang were taken. When we talked, I thought China's representative might've asked for his whereabouts, as they must know I have him, but they didn't. I guess he isn't that important to them. As they see it, they can just replace him once the moon is chained to the Earth again.

There are two security guards stationed at the entrance to the warehouse where Mr Jianmin is being kept. The two guards part to let us into the warehouse, swinging the large doors open for us. Aside for Mr Jianmin and some of his close aides, the warehouses contain two very important resources to us. First is our water stockpile, which takes up most of the room, even though extra water ice from Ceres is yet to arrive.

Second is our weapons supply. Our deal with the Israelis wasn't as one-sided as it might first appear. Through our deal, the Israelis negotiated that the first ten thousand colonists of Mars would be Israeli. In return, they allowed us to use their spaceport at Tel-Aviv to transport Palestinian workers to Ceres, via the moon. From the outside, ten thousand colonists seems like a steep price to pay for using Tel-Aviv and buying secrecy, and it is, if that was all we got out of it. Palestinian labourers weren't the only people to come to the moon from Tel-Aviv. Israeli military engineering units, their machinery, their skills, and their ammunition, came to the moon as well. IPM: Interplanetary Missile. A specially designed missile with a thin covering of LI-900 silica to stop the missile from burning up during atmospheric re-entry. Something similar was constructed by the American military as early as the 2020s, but of course, there wasn't much practical use for it. It's designed to take out satellites, and that should be all it is ever used for. Should be.

We thought it prudent, in the case that Mr Jianmin escaped, that he knew nothing about these missiles, so only water ice is contained in the same warehouse as himself and his coworkers. The five of them, including Mr Jianmin, are all sat in a row facing towards the doors. All of them have their heads drooped. I begin walking forward, but Yohn puts out a hand to stop me.

"Wait," he says.

What? I'm not sure what the problem is, but I suppose he's the expert here. I don't entirely understand, but I nod. Perhaps they've slipped loose, and are just pretending to still be tied up.

Yohn and one of the guards begin moving cautiously towards Mr Jianmin and the other captives, drawing their blades as they do so. The guard next to me does the same. Guns are banned on the moon. Or rather, they're banned on the shuttles and at LKY Spaceport, meaning none ever reach Artemis. That's a loophole DELOS has used for years to ban prohibited or dangerous goods from coming to the moon. Even if we can't make our own laws, we can use Singapore's jurisdiction at the port of entry to make it work.

I'm still not sure why exactly Yohn and his men are acting this way. I look towards Yohn and the guard that went with him. They've almost reached Mr Jianmin. That's weird, neither Mr Jianmin or any of his allies have raised their heads, or moved at all, since we came in, why... oh. Oh no, oh no, oh no. Are they dead? They're dead, aren't they? Who would've been able to come in here and kill them?

Just then, the lights go out.