Beneath the Red World's Crust

The story follows an outlawed soldier who becomes entangled with a young woman and her ailing father in an abandoned Martian city. Hunted by a corporate expedition and its patrols, they confront living, protective alien screen-creatures, booby-trapped architecture, and a hidden ecosystem beneath the planet's crust. Tensions between survival and duty drive desperate escapes across rooftops, stealth, and short-range violence, while revelations about subterranean life and colonial exploitation complicate loyalties. Pulp-paced action alternates with scenes of infiltration and pursuit, presenting a compact tale of fugitives facing both engineered enemies and ancient nonhuman forces.