The Planetsider Trilogy

by G J Ogden

  “You still mean to return with me, to the planet?” said Ethan, not turning to face her.

  “I do,” said Diana. “I believe we’d make a good team.”

  Ethan turned and saw Diana standing as she usually did, hands clasped in front of her, red lips pressed into a thin smile. “Diana, I want you to know that I believe you and admire what you’re trying...” he began, but Diana interrupted, quick to head off any suggestion of refusal.

  “Ethan, you don’t have to decide now, take…”

  “Diana, please, hear me out,” implored Ethan cutting across her. He looked pleadingly into her intense green eyes. Ethan could see that she was desperate to speak her mind, but she fought back her impulses and allowed him to talk.

  “I understand what you want, Diana,” said Ethan, “and I want it too. But the planetsiders are not ready to accept you back. Not yet.”

  “Ethan, I mean no harm to your people…” said Diana, unable to contain herself any longer.

  Ethan held up a hand to stop her again. “I know,” he said, believing her. “But they are not ready. And, while this war continues, neither are you.”

  Diana opened her mouth to speak again, but her words were drowned out by the sudden blaring of a siren. Diana’s face hardened like stone. She ran over to the nearest docking quadrant and spoke to a uniformed man, who was staring intently at a screen. Ethan followed, but hung back a little so as not to get in the way.

  “How many?” Diana asked the man.

  “Three fighter craft, ten kilometers away, heading straight for us and closing fast,” the man replied promptly. “Command has launched a full response from the upper ring.”

  Diana raised a clenched fist to her chin and stood there in deep thought. “What are they doing?” she said, addressing no-one specifically.

  “Are we in danger?” asked Ethan, concerned.

  “No,” said Diana, but Ethan was far from convinced by the response.

  “Then why do you look worried?” he asked, beginning to feel more anxious.

  Diana moved over to the console nearest the uniformed man and started tapping at the screen. “Three light fighters pose no threat,” she said, while still watching the screen. “Even if our fighter response doesn’t intercept them, they would be destroyed by the main batteries before they even got within a kilometer of this station.”

  “Perhaps they just want to test our response times?” suggested the uniformed man.

  “Perhaps,” said Diana still looking at the screen. “It’s unusual though. It’s as if they…” She stopped abruptly, mid-sentence. The panel in front of her started to beep frantically. Diana hit the screen and the display switched to an external camera. Diana squinted at the screen and then she saw it, the outline of a fourth vessel, cutting silently through space directly towards the lower docking ring where they were situated. It was completely powered down, with no engine glow, no lights and no electronic emissions, so it was practically invisible against the starscape. Ethan could see that Diana knew their plan. She looked up at Ethan, her eyes wide. “It’s as if they want to distract us from something else.”

  Ethan opened his mouth to respond and then it felt like an earthquake hit the station. He was knocked from his feet, and thrown awkwardly onto the hard metal floor. An explosion erupted from the quadrant opposite and the lights went out. For a moment there was total darkness and then the emergency lights kicked in, bathing the area in a harsh, red hue.

  Ethan got up, and helped Diana to her feet. “Thanks,” she said, dusting off her gray suit, which was now ripped and blackened in places. Before Ethan could respond, she had rushed back over to the console. The other man lay on the floor, bleeding out badly from a wound to his head. Ethan went to help him, but Diana called out. “No, there’s no time!” her voice was urgent. “They’ve rammed the docking ring and breached it. They will be coming!”

  “Who?” shouted Ethan.

  “The UEC,” said Diana. “They’ve come for the warship. We have to get to the auxiliary control room and destroy it, or they will take it and use it to destroy this station!”

  “But if you destroy the ship, you lose any hope of returning to the planet in the future!” cried Ethan. He may not have agreed with Diana’s intention to return planetside now, but there may come a time when it was possible, and by destroying the ship she was giving up that chance.

  “I know, but it’s too big a risk,” Diana answered, shaking her head. Then she ran towards a metal stairwell that snaked up to the balcony level, overlooking the four docking quadrants. “That ship cannot fall into the hands of the UEC. Come on, follow me!”

  Ethan followed closely behind as Diana raced up the stairs. As they reached the first junction, Ethan felt another explosion rock the lower ring. He turned and saw that a hole had been blasted through the docking bay door in the quadrant opposite, close to where the initial explosion had occurred. Soldiers dressed in vibrant blue armor and carrying powerful-looking rifles charged through the opening and immediately began shooting. Each wore a helmet with a visor covering their entire face; all expect one. As the soldiers charged in, filing to the left and right, shooting at anyone that moved, the unmasked man walked down the center line, almost casually, carrying a rifle at the low-ready position. It was Major Kurren.

  “Quickly, we don’t have much time!” shouted Diana, who was surprisingly agile, and already several seconds ahead of him. Ethan set off back up the stairs to a background of weapons firing below, and the sickening screams and shouts of people being killed. They reached the balcony and Ethan followed Diana across the front of a long room, with darkened glass windows. She swiftly unlocked the door with her ident, pushed it open and motioned for Ethan to go inside first. Bullets ricocheted off the railing and walls nearby.

  “Hurry!” shouted Diana, as Ethan practically fell into the room. Diana followed close behind, closed the door and then held her ident to the silver panel until the rim turned red.

  “The lock will hold them for a while, but not for long,” Diana explained, through labored breaths.

  “What are we doing here?” Ethan asked, looking around the room. “What is this place?”

  “It used to be a command center used by GPS, though we’ve not had need of it for years,” Diana replied. “But I can still remotely access the warship’s systems from here.”

  “To do what?”

  “To destroy it,” said Diana. “I can set it loose and overload its engines remotely. I just need time to load the override program and run it.”

  “What can I do?” asked Ethan, feeling helpless.

  Diana went to a metal storage cabinet next to a nearby console and, holding her ident to the silver square on the front, unlocked it. She opened the door, pulled out a handgun and held it out to Ethan, “Do you know how to use one of these?” she asked.

  “No, but I’m a fast learner,” said Ethan.

  Diana slid a clip into the weapon, chambered a round and flipped off the safety, before carefully handing it to Ethan. “It’s loaded and armed,” she said. “Just point, and squeeze the trigger. And be careful, that weapon is powerful enough to puncture even the UEC’s armor.”

  “I thought you said you weren’t a general,” said Ethan, holding the weapon gingerly. He was surprised at how deftly Diana had handled it.

  “Long story, no time,” she replied, before helping Ethan to adopt the correct grip. “Keep your trigger finger on the side, until you need to shoot.” Ethan followed Diana’s instructions and then practiced raising and aiming the weapon away into the far corner of the room; the metal was cold and heavy, but it felt comfortable to hold. “Come on, come on!” Diana shouted to the screen, urging the text and numbers that were flashing across it to move faster. A second screen lit up nearer to Ethan. On it was an image of the warship, still attached to the station by the long umbilical. He could see lights switching on across its hull, and its three giant engines begin to glow.

  The sound of heavy boots thudding o
n the metal decking outside drew Ethan’s attention to the door. He waved at Diana to get her attention, and then pressed a finger to his lips. Diana understood the signal, and slipped down low behind the console, making deliberately slower and more careful inputs in order to stay as quiet as possible. Ethan moved to the other side of the room, and hid behind a cluster of desks, weapon aimed at the door. Outside, he could see the shadows of two figures behind the dark glass. They were outside the door, trying the handle. Then he heard muted voices and they moved away. Ethan waited, his grip on the weapon’s handle so tight his knuckles were white.

  Moments later there was a sharp detonation and the door flew inward. The blast startled Ethan, but he quickly steadied himself and regained his focus. The two soldiers rushed in, scanning the room with lights fixed to the ends of their rifles. The first soldier saw Diana and tensed. Ethan stood tall, aimed and squeezed the trigger three times in rapid succession. The power of the weapon’s recoil took him by surprise, but his aim had been true and the soldier fell, blood spurting from its neck. The second figure fired at Ethan and debris erupted from the wall beside him, showering him with dust and fragments of a stone-like material. He ducked lower and threw himself behind an adjacent desk. The soldier fired again and Ethan stayed low as more fragments showered him from above. He reached over the desk and fired blindly in the direction of the noise, before crawling behind a second desk further into the room. He chanced a look, and saw the soldier shifting away, looking, he presumed, for Diana. He took a deep breath, held it, and stood, raising the weapon towards the masked figure. The soldier reacted quickly, shifted again and turned the barrel of its rifle back towards him. Ethan panicked and squeezed the trigger reflexively, sending bullets though console screens, desks and even into the ceiling above them. The soldier flinched instinctively, as one of the rounds ricocheted off its laser-blue armor, but it did not fall. Ethan expected to be shot, but instead Diana appeared from behind the console and struck the soldier in the back of the head with what looked like a metal table leg. The soldier grunted and fell heavily to the floor. Ethan ran over and checked the body. It was either dead or unconscious.

  “There will be more coming,” Diana said, handing Ethan the metal bar. “Here, perhaps you’ll be more useful with this.”

  Ethan took it and delicately handed her back the handgun. “How long until you’re done?” he asked.

  “I don’t know, perhaps another five or ten minutes,” she said. “Our response force won’t get here in time, not with the docking ring on emergency lock-down. The doors are automatically sealed in the event of a hull breach and it will take them perhaps twenty minutes to override. You will have to buy me more time, Ethan!”

  Ethan gripped the bar. It felt familiar and comforting, like he was fighting on his terms, finally. He moved over to the door, and glanced outside. Two more soldiers were approaching. “Be ready,” he said to Diana. She nodded and tried to take as much cover as possible, while still working on the console.

  Ethan closed his eyes and listened to the footsteps approaching, gauging their speed and distance. They would not be expecting a melee, and would not be expecting someone to be standing so close behind the door. That would give him the early advantage, or at least that’s what he hoped. When they were almost on him, he took a deep breath, opened his eyes and swung hard, striking the first soldier cleanly in the throat, crushing the windpipe instantly. The second reacted more quickly and skillfully dodged Ethan’s follow-up. It raised its weapon but Ethan smashed it from the soldier’s grip, sending it to the floor in shattered pieces. Ethan stepped to the side and lunged, but the soldier deftly evaded the move and delivered a hard kick to Ethan’s ribs, before expertly stripping the bar from his grasp. It clattered on the hard floor, but remained tantalizingly close by. Pressing the advantage the soldier attacked again, but although Ethan blocked the strike the pain was still excruciating due to the soldier’s dense armor. Ethan cried out, feeding on the pain, and pushed his attacker away before kicking it solidly in the chest, sending it reeling backwards and rebounding off the dark glass wall. Ethan took the chance to recover the bar from the floor and then swung hard, feeling the metal connect cleanly with the soldier’s helmet, smashing the visor to pieces. The soldier fell to its knees and then scrambled away, before pulling a sidearm from the holster of its fallen companion. Ethan froze as the barrel was raised towards his head. The soldier moved forward, weapon outstretched. A sliver of light from the open doorway illuminated its face and Ethan’s heart almost stopped beating.

  “Sal?”

  Every muscle in Maria’s body tensed up as she saw Ethan’s face clearly for the first time since entering the room. She aimed the weapon off to the side, but did not fully lower her guard.

  “Ethan?” said Maria, doubting her own eyes, as if Ethan was a mirage in the desert. “Is it really you?”

  Ethan lowered the bar to his side and merely stood, numb, staring at Maria, overwhelmed by an explosive cocktail of emotions that he couldn’t process. He felt a nauseating pain at the confirmation of Maria’s lies, and a furious anger at the knowledge of the crimes she was now committing, yet both were tempered by an unbridled, bitter-sweet joy at seeing her again, alive and well. He shook his head. “It was all a lie,” he said despairingly, still struggling to believe it could be true. “Everything you told me... it was all lies.”

  Maria’s mouth hung slightly open, as if trying to speak. Her face appeared pale, drained of blood. The weapon in her hand trembled uncontrollably.

  “Ethan, what are you doing? Stop her!” shouted Diana from across the room. Diana was aiming the powerful sidearm towards Maria, but Ethan was standing between them, preventing a clean shot.

  Maria instinctively shifted her aim in the direction of Diana’s voice, but her hand was still shaking, and she could not take her eyes off Ethan.

  Ethan did not hear Diana’s cries. He could no longer hear the gunfire, the screams, or the sirens; everything but Maria had been blocked out. “You lied to me,” he said, the words still sounding alien and unbelievable.

  Maria stared back at him, an almost stupefied look on her face. She lowered the weapon to her side, but still no words came. Ethan had thought a lot about what he might say to Maria, if they ever met again, but in truth, he had never expected to. Now that she was here, these rational thoughts and questions were simply overshadowed by the anger that was swelling inside him. “You lied to me!” He was shouting now, willing Maria to respond, to offer a defense or at least an excuse. Even another lie would be better than silence. Maria looked deeply uncomfortable and confused. The weapon remained at her side, but her other hand was now clasped over her mouth, while her eyes stared blankly back at him. “Say something!” Ethan continued, now closing the gap between them. “Another lie, I don’t care, but say something!”

  Ethan’s advance jolted Maria into action. She stepped back, raising the weapon again. “Keep back, Ethan, please!” she urged, her voice shaky and unsure.

  But Ethan was not afraid and would not be pushed away. “I gave up everything for you,” he said, continuing to advance towards Maria, forcing her to back away. “I left everything and everyone I ever loved, because you told me you would die!”

  “Ethan, please…” said Maria, on the verge of tears.

  “You used me,” he said ignoring her pleas.

  “Ethan stop, please!” implored Maria again. She dropped the weapon to the floor and clasped both hands to her face, trying to force back tears that were now freely flowing down her cheeks.

  “You made me believe you loved me,” said Ethan, now almost face-to-face with her. Saying the words out loud suddenly made them more real, and more terrible. He fought back tears of his own. “And for what?” he continued, his voice shaking. “So you could murder these people? Is that it? Is that all this was for? Is that all I was to you? Just a tool to help you win the war?” He fell to his knees and begged her. “Tell me I’m wrong, please!”

  Diana rushe
d out from behind the console and aimed the pistol at Maria, but neither Maria nor Ethan reacted to her, remaining fixed on each other. Seeing that Maria was not currently a threat, she dashed to the door and peered out, but no other soldiers were coming. Staying hidden, she waited to see what would happen next.

  “It wasn’t all lies, Ethan,” Maria sobbed. “I tried to tell you. Before the attack on the base, before I got hurt. I tried to tell you that what I felt for you was real, don’t you remember?”

  Ethan laughed. “What, that you love me too?” he said. “You expect me to believe that, after all you’ve done?”

  Maria wrenched off her armored gloves and wiped her face with the backs of her hands, pressing the tears away and using her military discipline to compose herself. “Yes, I lied,” she said, more calmly. “Our mission was to retrieve a planetsider, and convince him or her to believe in our cause, so we could retrieve the ship and put an end to this war.”

  “I told you, Ethan,” said Diana, bitterly. “They are all the same, and they will never change! We don’t have time for this; we have to destroy that ship, before they take it and kill us all!”

  Maria glanced at Diana contemptuously, but then returned her attention to Ethan. “So yes, I used you. I had to lie, because we knew no-one would come willingly if we told the truth about the warship and why we wanted it. I used you because that was my mission; to end the war,” she said, her emotions now under control. “But I swear to you now that not everything was a lie,” Ethan laughed again and shook his head, refusing to hear her. “Ethan, it’s the truth!” said Maria, almost shouting. “I do care about you, and my parents were killed, just as I described to you, in a GPS attack,” then she looked again at Diana and added with venom, “They were murdered by these people who claim to be so innocent!”