Masjid in the clouds

The Cloud Masjid of High Palestine was built by the mega-rich Hajji Omar Mubarak. It floats on magnetic warp repulsers, Its bottom hidden in clouds generated by fog machines. When Hajji Omar travels on business around High Palestine, He travels in the Cloud Masjid. On staff in the Cloud Masjid are not only the pilots and mechanics but a full time Imam and Muezzin.

The Children of High Palestine call it the Bird Masjid and tell elaborate tales of how the birds were not allowed into the Masjids of High Palestine, so they built their own Masjid. But people found it and drove the birds out and took it over. Therefore the birds built another one this time in the clouds so that the people couldn’t get to it.

New Malaysian Farmer

A young boy on New Malaysia fires an Api Lembing surface to air missile at a naga , which is circling his father’s herd of dairy cattle. All farmers have several Api Lembing Missiles and have been trained to use them. The fact that surface to air missiles are so wide spread on New Malaysia is probably one of, if not main, reasons that it is avoided by raiders and Neo-Vikings.

Similar Solutions

The New Persia Long Eared Night Hunter was gene-engineered, at the Imam Hussain University in New Karbala, in an attempt to eradicate the very destructive Rexrat. A rodent type creature ,found on New Persia, that not only ate large amounts of foodstuffs but also has the habit of gnawing on fiber optic cables. It is a nocturnal creature hence the design of the Night Hunter. While the Night Hunter has not completely eliminated the Rexrat, it has curtailed the amount of damage it does by 90%. The New Persia Long Eared Night Hunter can track and kill a Rexrat in the Rexrat Tunnels and lairs in complete Darkness. Even though it is a ferocious hunter many on New Persia keep them as family pets.

The colonists of Turkmen Prime found themselves in a very similar predicament as the inhabitants of New Persia. On Turkmen prime a pseudo-reptile called a Kertenkele-fare, was consuming large amounts of the colonist’s foodstuffs and had a tendency to tear up wiring to use for nest building. The Kertenkele-fare is warm blooded and nocturnal, faced with a similar problem we see a similar solution. Scientists at Muslim University in New Ankara gene-engineered the Turkish Minature Night Hound, from dogs brought over by colonists to help herd sheep. The Night Hounds have been able to eliminate the Kertenkele-fare from almost all urban areas of Turkmen prime reducing the amount of damage they do by 85%

Intafada intefadah intifadah

Intafada (also Intefadah or Intifadah; from انتفاضة intifāḍah "shaking off") is an Arabic term for "uprising".

Martian Intafada Part 15 the end

Hamza sat at the large brown table sipping chai, in the executive boardroom. The walls still bare as since taking down the pictures of the Japanese emperor and other Japanese officials they had still not replaced them with anything.

Yusef Wehbe and Mohammed Hatta both walked into the room a cup of chai in one hand and folders in the other. They both sat down across next to each other across the table from Hamza. They opened up the folders and began the meeting by reciting the basmala.

The Three of them expressed surprise that 25% of the Japanese colonists refused return and opted to stay in the new Republic of Mars. They also had good news, with the war going badly for Japan back on Earth it wouldn’t be anytime soon that Japan would have troops to spare to try and recapture Mars. This delay would give them time to build up their ground defenses and to put some missal platforms into orbit.

Mohammed was able to give them even better news, Brazil, America, South Africa and China had all announced their recognition of the Republic of Mars. Brazil and America had even agreed to send them radar equipment and various pieces of scientific equipment that they needed via the space elevator in northern Brazil.The three men vowed that they would never allow Japan to retake Mars.

Martian Intafada part 14

General Hamza Kahir, commander of all Martian rebel military forces, strode into the room cradling his gauss rifle in his arms and with a captured 45 automatic on his hip. His left thigh bandaged from where he had been shot by a Japanese sniper. The room had maps of Mars and the city on the walls with different colored pins in them. Six computers were sitting on a long table in the middle of the room; their monitors flashing, chairs scattered around the room. In one corner of the room lay two bodies on the floor. One wore the heavy combat armor of the Japanese security forces, the other an armored vest over a business suit.

Hamza would admit later that he had actually expected Seigo-dono to go down fighting.
“I never expected to capture Seigo-dono” he would say.
But that he was very shocked that Noguchi fought to the end. The rebels had only managed to get them when Seigo-dono’s rifle had jammed.

The rebels had taken the city and the space elevator. The few pockets of Japanese resistance surrendered or made suicidal charges with the announcement of the death of Seigo-dono and the capture of the space elevator.

Martian Intafada part 13

Rockets rained down on Kyoto on mars sending the population scurrying underground. The Japanese defenders tried to stop the advance of the Martian rebels, but found they were powerless to slow the advance of the makeshift tanks, which spearheaded the attack.

“They have tanks and rocket planes! What has security been doing, sleeping”!?! Accused Noguchi.

“You cut workers rations and work them like animals, so of course they rebel. But on top of that you hide the fact that so much equipment is missing. Maybe if you had let me know that so many bulldozers had been damaged and that 3, 3 had simply vanished. I could have put it together sooner.” Yelled Seigo-dono.

“Well I don’t have time for this my family and I are going up the elevator.”

“Maybe your family, but you are staying right here. I have made dozens of requests for more security personal and every time you made sure that it did not happen as you saw it cutting into your profit margin. So you will stay here with me and die gloriously for the empire and the Emperor.”

“But...”

“But nothing, you have lived your life like a disgusting parasite; you will die like a man.”

Martian Intafada part 12

The Martian rebels, calling themselves the Second Army, were still more than 5 kilometers from the Japanese military base Akagi. Their mission was pretty simple, infiltrate the slope above Akagi and keep the Japanese soldiers pinned down so that they cannot go to help defend Kyoto on Mars. The 6th and 8th security groups were stationed at Akagi. As the 9th, 10th, and left security groups were on the other side of Mars. This would mean that Kyoto on Mars would only be defended by the 1st, 2nd and 12th security groups.

Colonel Fugi had predicted an attack on Akagi would come from the slope above and had deployed the bases APG’s in a defensive position. The rebel 2nd Army ran smack into them with disastrous results. The Japanese hit the rebels by surprise, sending them scrambling in shock. And while the initial hit was hard; the group was much larger than Colonel Fugi had ever anticipated. The rebels were able to regroup and counter attack flanking the Japanese APCs. Using their, heavy Gauss guns with devastating effort against the APC’s, it was only after the engagement that the rebel 2nd Army realized how hard they had be hit.

“So what you are saying is we are out of air.” Said Khalid exasperated to his assistant Abu-Hamza.

“The trucks carrying the air miners were hit as was the truck carrying the spare oxygen tanks. We have managed to salvage a few from the truck and a couple from the Japanese APC’s.”

“So how much air do we have?”

“About 14 hours, sir.”

“So, we keep them pinned down for 14 hours and suffocate and then they…”

“They, sir, move out and slam into the rear of the army that we have sent to capture Kyoto on Mars.”

“Ok, I must say I don’t like that plan. So we come up with a new plan. How about this? We attack Akagi. All out assault capture their air miners and spare air. Don’t suffocate and then we can actually move on to help with the attack on Kyoto on Mars. How does that plan sound?”

“Much better than the suffocation plan sir.”

The Intafadas Second army gathered on the slopes of Olympus Mons above Akagi. As their job had been to simply keep the Japanese forces trapped here, they had no rockets or the larger rail gun cannons. The heaviest guns they had were the equivalent of a 50 caliber machine gun and would not penetrate the heavy stone and brick walls of Akagi. They would have to get men to the air locks to blast them open with the small amount of explosives they had taken from a tunnel construction site.

They decided to turn the remaining vehicles’ engine to powering large make-shift fans they built. The idea was to force a wall of dust and sand down the slope to provide cover for the as they charged down the hill.

Morale was low to Khalid, who fancied himself somewhat of a singer. Khalid tried to raise their spirits by singing.
" When I die boys
Bury me on Olympus Mons.
When I die boys,
Bury me on Olympus Mons.
Where the rain don’t fall
And the wind don’t howl
Bury me on Olympus Mons….."

The attack was brutal with the bulk of the 2nd Army getting down to Akagi under the cover of the dust and sand. But, those who survived the initial charge found themselves in fierce room to room fighting with the Imperial security force casualty’s being very high.

Martian Intafada Part 11

Mustapha steered the rocket plane following the rail road tracks. He knew that somewhere up a head of him was a train stuffed full of Japanese soldiers. 20 minutes later Mustapha came up on the train and kissed the hand written card he had in his vest pocket which read ‘If Allah is your protector, none can overcome you, and if He forsakes you, then who can help you? Trust Allah and have faith in His sovereign power.-Qur'an, Al-Imran, Surah 3:160’. He then maneuvered the rocket plane into the optimum angle for attack.

He whispered the basmala as he fired his two rockets into the train engine, with the train engine destroyed and the train cars scattered about, some on their sides, he made three strafing passes on the broken train cars before heading back to refuel. The Japanese soldiers never knew what hit them for while they had lookouts looking forward and back and to the sides none were looking up.

Mustapha flying back to the rebel airbase felt confident that he would be able to get back in time to join in with the attack on Kyoto on Mars.

Martian Intafada part 10

Seigo-dono looked at the stack of reports and pictures on his desk. It seemed that a workers uprising was occurring all over Mars. Dozens of small security squads, that he had out at various construction sites, had been killed or captured. The security squad at the railroad construction site had managed to get a message out telling him that the armored doors on their barracks had been welded shut. Their heavily armored barracks turned into their prison. The fiber-optic line had been cut before they could get out any more information, but Seigo-dono was sure something similar had happened at many of the other construction sites.

“Toshi, I need you to order the 4th, 5th and 7th security groups to withdraw from their current positions and come to Kyoto on Mars. We will be able to deploy them out from the city as a forward defense against attack”, barked Seigo-Dono.

“I am sorry sir, but the 4th, 5th and 7th security groups are now in route to help secure the Haruko mining complex”

“Who ordered that bit of stupidity”?

“Ryoji Noguchi did sir, he felt that the Haruko mining complex is our largest and most profitable mining site and therefore must be protected.”

“I am in charge, not that idiot Ryoji Noguchi. I order the security units not him. I want you to send orders to them that when the train arrives at Haruko complex they are to stay on the train and that the train is to come to Kyoto on Mars right away.”

“Yes sir”
“Idiots” yelled Seigo-dono as he angrily slammed his fist into his desk.

Glossary of terms

I have had several non-muslim friends ask me about some of the terms that i used in my writings so here is a short glossary of a few of the words that you may not be familiar with.

Adhan is an Islamic way of calling Muslims to the five obligatory Prayers. The Adhan is announced daily from the Mosques.

Allah - the greatest and most inclusive of the names of God. It is an Arabic word of rich and varied meaning, denoting the one who is adored in worship, who creates all that exists, who has priority over all creation, who is lofty and hidden, who confounds all human understanding. It is exactly the same word as, in Hebrew, the Jews use for God (Eloh), the word which Jesus Christ used in Aramaic when he prayed to God. God has an identical name in Judaism, Christianity and Islam; Allah is the same God worshipped by Muslims, Christians and Jews.
"He is God, the One God, Independent

Allahu Akbar ; Allah is the Greatest

Assalamu 'Alaikum means 'Peace be on you.' Greeting of the Muslims. The response to this greeting is 'Wa 'Alaikum Assalam,' and on you be the Peace.

Basmala literally the phrase, Bismillah Rehman Rahim "In the name of Allah, the Most Kind, the Most Mericful." This utterance is usually made by every Muslim who is about to embark on something lawful (Halal), regardless of the magnitude of the task. This is also the first verse of Surah Al-Fatehah (Chapter 1) of the Holy Quran.

Insha Allah ; "If Allah wills."

Imam
1. Imam signifies the leader, and in its highest form, refers to the head of the Islamic state. 2. It is also used with reference to the founders of the different systems of theology and law in Islam. 3. A person who leads the prayer.

Jum'ah
"Friday." The Muslims' day of gathering together, when all Muslim males must go to the Masjid to hear the Friday Khutba (sermon) and to do the Jum'ah Salat (prayer), which is prayed instead of Dhur.

Khutbah
Sermon. The greatest sermon in the history of mankind was called al-Khutbatul Wida' (the farewell address), given by the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W.), during his last Hajj in 10 AH. There are various types of sermons:
1. Khutbatul Jum'ah (the Friday Sermon). This is given immediately before the Jum'ah Salah (Friday Prayer). 2. Khutbatul Eid (the Eid Sermon) This is given immediately after the prayer of the two Eids. 3. Khutbatul Nikah (the marriage sermon). This is given during the marriage ceremony.

Mimbar
Steps on which the Imam stands to deliver the Khutbah (address) on the day of the Jumah (Friday).

Martian Intafada part 9

Hamza Kahir sat in the gunner’s seat of one of the nine tanks they had managed to build. They had been driving for two days and were coming up on their objective, Ronin airfield. Four of the tanks maneuvered into position to charge the airfield, the other five dropped back and detached their rocket trailers. Thirty minutes later rockets rained down on the airfield destroying the hangers and the only four armed aircraft that the Imperial Japanese security forces had.

Hamza sighted the control tower with the tanks main gauss cannon, recited the basmala and fired. The round slammed into the top of the tower, glass flying out everywhere. The next two rounds hit the base of the tower collapsing it. A few Japanese soldiers rushed out towards the tanks firing on them with their assault rifles, but the rifles were unable to penetrate the tank armor. Huge fireballs rose up into the air as the Martian rebels destroyed the last remaining fuel tanks.

The Japanese fought to the last man, none surrendered. Hamza decided that he liked this as he was not sure of where they would have put prisoners, if they had surrendered. As soon as he was satisfied that the airfield was completely destroyed he ordered the rebels to move on to their next target, Kyoto on Mars. There they were to link up with the main body of the Martian rebel army.

Martian Intafada part 8

Asif Mahmoud sat quitly while Hamza Kahir, military commander of the Martian Intafada, went over the assassination plan for a fifth time. Asif and Atif Haque, his fellow assassin, both knew that they would only have one chance. Security around the governor and in Kyoto on Mars had increased measurably over the last several weeks. The two men had already written letters that were to be sent to their families back on Earth. Success or failure they were not going to survive.

“This is an Imperial Japanese News Service news flash. Governor Okamoto Has been assassinated. We repeat Governor Okamoto has been assassinated. The details are still coming in but apparently two suicide bombers were able to detonate themselves killing Governor Okamoto , two of his top aids, as well as twelve members of his security squad. General Seigo Miyauchi has declared martial law. We will give you updates as we receive more information.”

Martian Intafada part 7

Seigo-Dono had received a message from Japanese Imperial Intelligence HQ, warning about a possible threat of infiltration by the Brotherhood of the Golden Circle. The Brotherhood was becoming a major problem back on Earth. At first Seigo was a bit alarmed but when he checked the list of names that they had sent him, he discovered all the men were dead. All of them had died in a mine explosion several months ago.

He mused that they were possibly trying to make explosives and blew themselves up. Though he decided that he would try to convince the governor to reduce the number of non-Japanese workers in Kyoto on Mars and send out a memo to the security teams in the field to be vigilant. Even if it was nothing, it never hurt to get everyone back on their toes.

Martian Intafada part 6

Sometime later Khalid walked into a large pressurized cavern with a banner running along its wall proclaiming it, Mars Rifles and Rockets Corporation. There were three assembly lines set up, one to make gauss rifles the second to make the projectiles the gauss rifles would fire. It was the third line that made Khalid smile, there they were making rockets. The rockets had been Khalid’s idea; he had remembered a simple formula of 63% potassium nitrate, 27% sugar and 10% red iron oxide.

This had been made when digging out a new cavern they had discovered large deposits of both sodium nitrate and potassium chloride. The rockets they were making using this formula were able to lift much larger payloads on Mars than they would have on earth; because of the fact that on Mars they only had to deal with.38g instead of 1g as on Earth. Also despite the Japanese terra forming projects wind resistance was still no where near what it would have been back on Earth.

Khalid strode into a small office directly off of the main room; this was where Mohammed Hatta designed the tools that the Martian intafada would use. Khalid had received a message that Mohammed had to speak to him urgently.

“Asalam Alaikum Mohammed, what is so urgent that I am creeping out into the darkness and missing my beauty sleep.”

“Alaikum Asalam brother, I have fantastic news. Brother Abdullah has discovered the Zubrin landing site. Inshallah, if the tanks have held and the wind miner there is still working there should be several thousand liters of liquid hydrogen and oxygen. I have already drawn up planes for a rocket plane that we could build. We just need you to help us go get it”

The two men discussed further and decided that Khalid would pretend to take one of the big eight wheeled trucks out to scout the path of the railroad. He would meet up with Abdullah who would have a trailer with Tanks on it to siphon the hydrogen and oxygen if the tanks were indeed still full.

The construction of the rocket planes would require that six more men ‘die’ on the railroad project, so that they could build 4 of them with out pushing back the time table that the Martian Intafada leadership had agreed to.

While Khalid was there, Mohammed showed him how well the bulldozer’s makeover into tanks was going. They had solved the problem of seeing out by outfitting the tanks with periscopes, as they did not have armored glass. The tanks would also tow the multi-tube rocket launchers. Every thing was on schedule Mohammed assured Khalid.

Martian Intafada Part five

The Khalid Hamada Memorial rail tube connects Kyoto on Mars with the polar settlements.

As the meeting broke up Kahir Stood up and started talking just a little to loudly.
“It’s nice and all to talk about having a real war, but if you haven’t noticed the most advanced weapon that we have is a scorpion and most of my men have crossbows and knives. The security people keep their rifles under lock and key, and the security people in the field don’t have more than 60 rounds each. And I might add that despite our best experts we cannot manufacture rifles and bullets.”

“Well based on the information that brother Hamada has supplied us with” said Mohammed nodding towards Khalid, “ we are going to make tanks and linear electromagnetic mass accelerators”

“I don’t see how any information that I gave you is going to help you build a linear electro thing-a-ma-bob, “ said Khalid glancing at Yusef and Mahathir two of only about six people still in the room. “And I know of no way to build tanks.”

“Linear electromagnetic mass accelerators” replied Muhammed, “and don’t worry about the tanks they are going to be easy.”

“I don’t even know what that is”

“You don’t know what a tank is?”

“I know what a tank is the other doohickey thing you are talking about.”

“Coaxial accelerators”

“Still clueless”

“Asynchronous linear induction motor.”

“No idea what you are saying”

“Pulsed solenoids with a moveable core.”

Khalid simply shrugged his shoulders in the negative.

“Gauss guns or coil guns”

“Oh a gun”

“You did graduate from university”

“Chemistry not physics was my strong science.”

“Ok, let me explain then. The supply list you gave us shows that we are receiving a large shipment of super-conductive wire, 5 thousand kilometers of it, to be exact. That along with the new super hard plastic pipes we have received will be used to make the gauss guns. We will take the pipes, which are 12mm in diameter with 1mm thick walls. We will cut them in lengths of 75cm long and bore them to add stability. We will take the super-conductive wire and wrap it around the pipe. I figure about 200 turns should do it. The switching mechanism is a solid-state switch, a ceramic disk that we can make out of the Martian clay. We have already made about three thousand of them. The energy storage device is the miniature compulsators the Japanese have to power all the vehicles. The projectiles will be a 10mm in diameter, 5cm long ferrite ceramic slug. It has a density of 5g/cc and weighs 16 grams. And 25 bulldozers have arrived on Mars; we will use them to make the tanks by welding the extra bulldozer blades on them for armor. Security’s guns will not be able to penetrate them. Now all we have to do is get the material here and begin.”

“So, you want me to request more bulldozers for the project than we need.”
“Exactly, and you can claim that we lost two in a rock slide and need replacements. All in all when we bring them to field we should have ten, which might not sound like a lot but as there are no tanks on Mars we will have a significant advantage.”

Martian Intafada Part 4

Three weeks later Khalid was going over soil samples and being dismayed at how soft the ground was just 5 kilometers ahead of where the construction was currently taking place. He realized that they were going to have to drive very deep piles to support the railroad. The door buzzed and when Khalid opened it he ushered in Yusef. Yusef wasn’t alone; one of the company’s doctors was with him.

“Have you met Dr. Toshiyukie, Khalid?” asked Yusef.

“I haven’t had the honor”, said Khalid standing up and shaking hands with the doctor. The doctor was a middle-aged Japanese national, tall with graying hair and a firm handshake.

“It is very nice to meet the newest member of the Martian resistance,” said Dr. Toshiyukie.

Khalid looked at Yusef with Alarm. “Well um ahh”, he muttered.

“It’s alright the doctor is on our side”, said yusef with a sly smile, “he has been helping us by signing fake death certificates, so that some of the resistance has been able to get out of the system and set up some bases in the hills. He has also helped us secure some medical equipment and medicines. Which brings me to my next point, I need you to get a list of supplies and where they are being stored and maybe things you think we could order. Also later I have some other friends I would like you to meet.”

“Doctor do you mind if I ask you why someone who is Japanese would join the resistance?” asked Khalid.

Dr. Toshiyukie looked at khalid with out saying a word for what seemed to be an eternity and then spoke.

“When ever your workers are injured so badly they can no longer work what happens to them?”

“I am supposed to fill out a Medical discharge form and they go back”

“Back where?”

“Back to Earth”

“You actually believe that the Imperial government pays for their passage back to earth?”

“Oh God, what do they…”

“They are sent back to Kyoto on Mars and are turned into fertilizer.”

“Yes I understand”
Later that night Khalid put on his Mars Suit and went outside. He went to the vehicle storage center and then using his Mars Compass; really an electronic device which received signals from Satellites in orbit, and walked due north for a kilometer.

Khalid was taken by surprise when two men stood up tossing off the camouflage blankets that they had been hiding under. Both men had what appeared to Khalid as some sort of crossbow, neither of the men spoke a word but motioned for him to follow them. He walked, one man leading and the other man behind him, for about a kilometer before they stopped and opened a camouflage door in a crater wall. Khalid realized that he would not have found the door if he had spent a month looking for it. Still not speaking one of the men nudge him towards the doorway and as the one person present who did not have a weapon Khalid felt it prudent to go through the door.

After cycling through the airlock that the small hidden door had led to, he found himself in a 10 meters by 20 meters room with a floor sloping down and two corridors leading off of it. There were several tables and chairs in the room, as well as boxes piled all along the walls. There were about twenty people in the room all looking at him. This made Khalid extremely uncomfortable and so he squeaked out, “ Assalam Alaikum”

“Alaikum Asalam” the group replied in unison.

While Khalid thought that this reply should make him feel more comfortable, it actually freaked him out a little.

The meeting got under way. What became apparent to Khalid very quickly was that the resistance had been in existence for quite sometime and that they had built small hidden camps all over Mars. Now they were ready to go from stealing equipment and subtle sabotage to open rebellion. It was also apparent that how this was to happen had still not been decided.

There was a group of three men, included Daniel, one of the Phillapinos at the meeting, who wanted to simply take what they needed and vanish into the Martian wilderness.
Hamza Kahir, a broad shouldered Indonesian with a frightening intensity in his eyes, wanted Khalid wanted to help them steal explosives and using bombs and suicide bombers, terrorize the Japanese into leaving Mars. Hamza was a former Indonesian army commando and an expert in Silat. He already had a company of men trained, and Khalid discovered later that the men whom he had encountered earlier had been trained by Hamza.
The other group was led by Mahathir Abdullah and Mohammed Hatta. Mahathir was a Malay, trained to be an Imam in the Brotherhood of the golden circle, a soft-spoken man who spoke with authority. Mohammed was a very energetic engineer from Acheh Indonesia who got more and more excited as he spoke. They advocated a more traditional guerrilla war escalating into a conventional war.

Mahathir said,” This should be put to a vote. But before we put this to a vote, I would like to remind my Muslim brothers that the Quran and Hadith have given us rules of war that we must follow.
"Do not kill any old person, any child or any woman" (AbuDawood).
"Do not kill the monks in monasteries" and "Do not kill the people who are sitting in places of worship" (Musnad of Ibn Hanbal).
"Do not attack a wounded person" said the Prophet. This means that wounded soldiers who are not fit to fight, nor actually fighting, should not be attacked.
"The Prophet has prohibited us from mutilating the corpses of the enemies" (Bukhari, AbuDawood).
"Fight in the cause of God against those who fight you, but do not transgress limits. God does not love transgressors." Qur'an 2:190
"If anyone killed a person - unless it was for murder or for spreading mischief in the land - it would be as if he killed the whole people"Qur'an 5:32
“I also remind you that in Islam there are no Japanese children , all children are born Muslim and if one should be killed that there will be justice for that child.”
When the vote was taken 4 voted to simply run away into the Martian wilderness, 3 voted for Kahir’s plan and 16 voted for the plan put forth by Mohammed Hatta.