ERB |
Edgar Rice Burroughs fan fiction | The Rebels of Mars |
|
|
|
ERB |
Edgar Rice Burroughs fan fiction | The Rebels of Mars |
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Rebels of Mars |
Special thanks to: 
for designing Xenite.org's graphics Contact Us! |
It is the 100th anniversary of the day John Carter of Helium was proclaimed Warlord of Barsoom. Many Jeddaks and Jeds have come to Helium to celebrate the first century of relative peace and stablity Barsoom has known for thousands of years. Although some of the Green Martian hordes still roam the deserted seabeds like their ancestors of old, the Tharks have begun to establish a permanent residency in some of the older cities. They are hoping to benefit from a daring scheme that Rangkor Valat, a renowned scientist from Jahar, has proposed: bringing water to Barsoom.
Valat's proposal is to be presented to a council of scientists commissioned by the Council of Jeddaks of Barsoom. The Council, meeting for the first time to proclaim a multination effort to restore life and vitality to Barsoom while there may still be time, represents the most powerful nations in the world, from Helium to Okar to the land of the First Born of the Valley Dor. All Barsoom is coming together to work toward the common good. Rangkor Valat's thesis is simple: there is much water, in the form of great ice asteroids and comets, circulating through the Solar System. Now that Barsoom has established contact with other worlds and has reliable modes of travel to those worlds, Valat proposes that a huge fleet of ice ferries be constructed and sent out into space to bring back life's most vital fluid in its frozen form. Carter, not ever greatly interested in matters of science, has nonetheless used his influence and friendships with the world's many jeds and jeddaks to bring about the success of the plan, for he sees no hope for Barsoom otherwise. There is some opposition, however. Talvas See, Jeddak of the small and impoverished nation of Atholia, opposes the plan because he does not feel his people will benefit from the influx of new water. They lack the resources to construct the space-faring vessels of the fleet, so their shipwrights will not be employed in the project except possibly as remote contractors. His country lies too close to the Toonolian Marsh to be given a priority on the list of nations to receive water, and yet his people must pay exorbitant fees to a local group of bandits who control their water supply. Talvas See walks out on the Council of Jeddaks when John Carter and Tardos Mors insist that Valat's plan be put into action. It is estimated that it will take three years to construct the first group of space-faring vessels, for an entire new industry must be raised up from scratch. The crews will be trained on small experimental craft. Carter senses that Talvas See may cause some trouble, but he decides that Atholia is too small to hurt Barsoom's great scheme. As time goes by more nations begin to jockey for position on the priority list. Dissatisfied with the politics in the Council, John Carter takes Dejah Thoris for a vacation in Gathol. However, as they are flying over a dead sea bed an unmarked warship approaches their flier and opens fire. Carter is able to land his damaged craft safely and he and Dejah Thoris slip into a neaby forest of Sorapus trees. They watch as the warship takes their flier aboard and departs. Never one to despair, Carter immediately sets out to find the nearest city, and in a few days he and Dejah Thoris find themselves on the outskirts of the little known country of Lalmapur. The residents are backwards Red Men who have heard of John Carter through trade contacts. They seem honorable but are proud and boastful men who feel they can defeat anyone in single combat. When a local jed, Mal-Thorvis, challenges Carter for the hand of Dejah Thoris, Carter kills him and is declared an outlaw. Dejah Thoris is taken captive and Carter is attacked by a pack of war calots. Driven from the city of Lalma-kai by the war calots, Carter meets an old man in the forest. The old man tells Carter he is Jal Partak, former Jed of Lalma-kai. He had been driven from the city when he refused to take the last journey down the River Iss many years ago, but such was his skill at arms that even his own palace guards could not kill him. He has lived alone for many years, and is amazed to hear of Carter's revelations concerning the Valley Dor and the cult of Issus, which is still observed by many of the Lalmapurians. As Carter and Partak plot to re-enter the city and rescue Dejah Thoris, they see an unmarked warship similar to the one which had attacked Carter fly into Lalma-kai. Noticing a small flier has been detached to land in the woods, Carter overpowers its pilot and learns that the warship belongs to a brigand jed who has been hired to assassinate Carter. The brigands are in alliance with the now greatly diminished Assassins Guild of Barsoom, the last remnant of the many assassin organizations Carter had once fought against in a secret war. Taking the flier into Lalma-kai, Carter and Partak come upon the warship as Dejah Thoris is being taken aboard. Carter learns that she is to be taken to a mysterious jeddak who has commissioned the assassination of the Warlord of Barsoom. He steals a few moments with the incomparable Dejah Thoris and assures her he will not let any harm come to her, but he asks her to bravely allow herself to be taken to the enemy leader so he may uncover the full depth of the dastardly plot. Dejah Thoris proudly agrees and they separate. When the warship takes off, one of the palace guards recognizes Jal Partak. Partak and Carter must fight off many warriors, and Carter is amazed at the skill the old man displays, but Partak is much weaker than he once was, and soon he is overpowered. Unwilling to abandon a friend, though in great anguish over the departure of Dejah Thoris, Carter surrenders so as to save Partak's life. They are taken before Morvan Thu, current Jed of Lalma-kai. Morvan Thu is pleased to see his old rival has finally been taken captive, but a strange warrior orders him to send Carter and the former Jed to the mysterious Jeddak. Morvan Thu reluctantly agrees to do so the next day, but that night someone secretly helps Carter and Partak escape from their cell in the pits beneath the city. Suspecting a trap, Carter barely evades a score of palace guards waiting to kill the escaping prisoners. He instead frees other warriors from the pits who have been imprisoned by Morvan Thu on various charges, usually so he could take their property or their women. The freed prisoners overwhelm the palace guards and start a riot in the city. John Carter and Jal Partak find Morvan Thu meeting with the strange warrior. Carter tells Morvan Thu that he is no longer Jed of the city, but the strange warrior attacks Carter and tries to kill him. Faced with no other choice, Carter kills the strange warrior and turns to find that Jal Partak has slain Morvan Thu. They go out to find the people of the city gathered around the palace. Partak is proclaimed Jed of Lalma-kai once again and he gives Carter the flier used by the strange warrior. The flier is equipped with a homing compass and Carter notes that it will take him close to the Toonolian Marsh. He sets the compass and sleeps through the night. He wakes in the morning as he approaches his destination, a great fortress in a valley. There are several unmarked warships berthed on or near the fortress and Carter wonders if these aren't the brigands which had so pressured Talvas See of Atholia. Carter sets the flier down in a wooded area close by the fortresss and approaches it on foot. As he comes in sight of the fortress he sees a warship with Atholian markings land in one of the berths. Talvas See disembarks and enters the fortress, leaving Carter curious about what he is up to. Carter finds a way inside the fortress and overtakes Talvas See as he argues with a man over water rights. Carter waits until Talvas See is alone and then approaches him, but See reveals Carter's whereabouts to the brigands and has him taken prisoner. Thrown into the pits, Carter finds himself keeping company with a warrior from Atholia named Van Kaltor. Kaltor was once an officer in Talvas See's army but he opposed See's plot to disrupt the Barsoomian space expedition. Although Kaltor doesn't know all the details, he tells Carter that See has been secretly contacting dissidents in each of the major nations of Barsoom and organizing to overthrow the Jeddaks who are building the Great Fleet. Even some of Helium's people are worried that Tardos Mors is wasting precious resources on a nonsense scheme with little chance of success. Talvas See has ordered the assassination of John Carter and Dejah Thoris in the hope that the great Jeddaks of Barsoom will be unable to unite under new leadership once Carter is out of the way. The water brigands are helping because they see opportunities to expand their trade in water as Barsoom slowly dies. Alarmed at Kaltor's revelations, Carter manages to steal the keys to their chains from a guard who comes to feed them. Talvas See has apparently decided to keep Carter alive just in case he can be used to bargain with the Council of Jeddaks. Carter and Kaltor escape and make their way up into the fortress only to see Talvas See leave with Dejah Thoris. She sees John Carter and cries out for him, and the brigands immediately attack the two men. |
|
This page is copyright © 1997-2007 by Michael L. Martinez. All rights reserved. No portions of this page may be reproduced electronically or otherwise without express permission from the copyright holder, except as occurs in normal browser caching and page indexing.
Created by Search Engine Optimization Specialist Michael Martinez |