Secret part 6

William Wilberforce Wensleydale looked around his bridge crew. Why the hell had a fleet been launched, rather than the usual method where ships moved in one at a time? Mars may have been great warriors, but they were warriors and liked individual combat. Then he looked carefully at the sealed orders. They were carried by the Planet Plunderers on board.

"It's time to open these." stated Charlie Cheddar. All Planet Plunderers were called Charlie Cheddar after the first Plutarkian who had started it up without permission, and had tipped the war back in the Plutarkian's favour.

"The Planetary Invasion of Earth is not going well. After finally reading Limburger's uncensored reports," Camembert sighed. "Earth has organised opposition in depth, and copied a lot of technology. We have to strike now, before they organise their space fleet -assuming they've built it."

"We'd better hope they haven't. Imagine Mars and Earth allied?"

Back on Earth in the Last Chance garage, the mice and Charley had gathered to listen to the spy. If they had something to say they'd better say it soon. Why wasn't she saying anything? Charley realised quickly, this was going to very bad. She sent the mice out the room. “An Ears only." Charley spoke. "So how bad is it?"

"Plutark has finally launched an invasion fleet, and it is commanded by their best admiral William Wilberforce Wensleydale, who is a decent tactician, and somehow gets Plutarkians all pulling in the same direction. Unfortunately there isn't a way to get on board."

"There might be. But you'll have to let the mice in. Now I'd better change into my uniform. And see if you can rustle up some Special Forces. I'm going to need more than just three, in case of losses. Limburger has finally taken off his gloves."

Meanwhile on Mars, Carbine got the bad news of a fleet heading into the system. She sighed. Plutarkians were not normally good at fleet actions, but with this she would have to cut the boys play short. A fleet was a crisis which required every mouse on Mars and together. Still while she did like seeing Charley, she doubted she'd be forgiven for this, because as much as Charley didn't want to admit it, she was in love with Vinnie. Not surprising since she was similar to Harley. But as much as that may have been the start, it had grown into something more.

Carbine looked at her assistant as it was undoubtedly time to leave. She turned on the radio - best to catch up with the news. She needed to be aware of what was happening. Soon she noticed the headlines. Gang War had exploded in Detroit resulting in the death of Napoleon Brie. Jack Monterey had been arrested for tax evasion. What the hell was going on? She thought Earth was clueless, but now they seemed to have better information than she did, even if the panic was overdone. Anyone would think that they thought the fleet was heading for them.

As she approached Earth, the satellites analysed her ship and realising it was of Martian Mouse make they left it alone. As usual Carbine landed well. Why the Freedom Fighters crashed their ships was a mystery. But she suspected it was due to Throttle’s encouragement. The next thing to do was to make her way safely around the block to the Last Chance Garage without being noticed.

Once she was there she headed into the Garage and there was an Earth military soldier facing the mice. This was not good at all; she'd have to rescue them. She just knew that the boys would get into trouble sooner or later. She moved carefully and silently towards the enemy, only to hear a familiar voice come from the soldier.

"Carbine! Nice to see you again."

"Charley?" Carbine asked, taken aback in shock. "What are you doing in that uniform?"

"You didn't tell her?" Charley asked Throttle. "I thought you'd have done that at least."

"Tell me what?"

Throttle sighed. "Like with you, I trust her, but not the military she works for. Since you needed to be our ace-in-the-hole I couldn't tell her everything I wanted to either. But since it's time I think you'd better."

"We discovered the Plutarkian invasion before you landed. Unfortunately our tech base meant open opposition would be met with a space fleet. So all we could do was run general interference, without open warfare. Then these guys arrived. I directed them to Lawrence Limburger believing he was a human agent in the Plutarkian's employ."

"So how long has Throttle known?"

"Shortly after he met me."

Carbine looked at both. "Interesting as that is, there's a fleet heading for Mars."

"Are you certain it's heading for Mars?" Charley pointed out. "The last moves brought Plutark into open warfare with us, and it's commanded by William Wilberforce Wensleydale."

Carbine grimaced. "I can't move what of our fleet that we've got to protect Earth, Charley. He'll attack Mars if we do."

"And if you don’t he'll attack Earth. Our space fleet construction is well behind schedule; despite the fact our air and ground armament is now more than ready."

"We'll talk later, Charley. Now I plan to have words with Throttle."