Another Night on Mars part I

"This night is gonna be a cool one - no clouds anywhere. You can see the Deimos and Phobos clearly tonight."

That was private Greenwell, my fellow Trencher. We were sitting together in a small foxhole in the badlands of Northern Mars. The sunset had passed an hour ago and the air was getting chill. I tightened the hood of my cloak.

"Well, the sight of those two moons does not really make me feel happy on a night like this," I commented.
"Come on Pretchell, at least now those damn cultists will have more difficult time sneaking up on us tonight".

At that moment a rhythmic chanting started on the village on top of the hill. The eerie voice sent chills down my spine. Seconds later the top story of a tall building in the middle of the village became a giant torch and for what felt like minutes a mad laughter filled the air.

"Well, with that bonfire lighting up the area around, they will have even more difficult time sneaking up on us." I said confidently. But deep inside I did not feel confident at all. Those deranged darkness-worshipping fellows had been rather quite since the noon - which had allowed our Trencher company to encircle the whole village and dig in to a good position. Now we just needed to contain them inside while waiting for the reinforcements to arrive.
"Sounds creeps down my spine", said Greenwell, referring to the strange laughter. "No thing born from a woman should be able to make such a noise".
"I hope we won't need to ever see that thing. I mean, according to captain, by tomorrow morning the mechanized artillery should arrive and then the whole village will be pounded to pieces. And after that the assault trenchers will go and torch up what little is left, so that not a single tainted cell will remain."
"I hope they will also show up by schedule this time. Remember last time, when they battery commander decided that it was under they dignity to travel during the hours of darkness, and we had to survive the Capitol assault next morning without any artillery support?"
"Yeah, but they sent that lieutenant to court martial for that. He would have got executed if his uncle had not been some high up in our Ministry of War."

After that, neither of us spoke anything for the next half an hour. We just kept watch a tight watch on the village and the neighboring foxholes.

Then I heard it. The familiar sound of a drop of water, dropping down somewhere close. The noise was familiar, but it was out of place - the air was completely dry, as was the ground. Another drop fell down, hitting the hard clay on the bottom of foxhole. Then another and another. They were dropping down from the edge of our foxhole.

"Hey, Greenwell, there is something strange going on. See those drops falling down? There is almost a small stream running down the hill from the village!"
"I guess they have broken by accident some water piping up there. Or perhaps not by accident. See, there are several small streams running down the hill - you can see them by the light of the burning house - and they are getting bigger and bigger." As Greenwell was speaking, a small pool started forming up on the bottom of our foxhole.
I extended my hand, and touched the pool carefully with my glove. Then I withdrew it back, close to my face, lifted up my mask and sniffed. "Greenwell, do you remember when we talked about those civilians that were at the village when the cultists fled there?"
"Yes, They will get blasted to bits tomorrow when the artillery opens up. Doesn't make me too happy."
"Well, I think there is no need to worry about them. This stuff flowing down the hill is not water but human blood."

That was too much for Greenwell. He screamed, dropped his rifle to the ground, jumped up and ran off to the darkness, down the valley and away from the doomed village.