The Planetsider Trilogy

by G J Ogden

  Kurren thought for a moment and then said, “KCs, what are they?”

  Summer shot him a look that could shatter stone. “This is not the time for a cozy little chat, space man,” she spat. “Now go away and fight before I shoot you myself.”

  Kurren was growing tired of the woman’s attitude and it showed in his response. “Look lady, if you want me to fight I need to know my enemy,” he said, trying to remain calm. “Now cut the attitude and give me something that could help.”

  Summer felt anger swell in her stomach, but she also knew that Kurren was right, and so grudgingly she relented. “Keep Clear areas, If you must know,” she answered. “KCs for short. They are just big scorched areas of nothing, but you find them in the worst damaged parts of the cities too.”

  “Thank you,” said Kurren, sincerely. He was trying to form a bond, but this woman was even more stubborn than Maria.

  “Another gift from your little war,” Summer added spitefully. Kurren rolled his eyes, but let this slide too. He considered what Summer had told him. It made sense that some elements of the refinery that made it through the atmosphere without burning up would create areas of particularly intense toxicity. Satisfied with the explanation he fell silent and resumed his survey of the landscape.

  One group of five roamers had clustered together further from the wall. Some had objects in their hands, possibly weapons, though he couldn’t make out what from this distance. They certainly seemed reasonably organized, not like the more savage roamers that they had encountered in the space port. He shook his head. He’d rather go quickly than end up like them, slowly degrading until they eventually changed into something vile and obscene.

  “There seem to be enough of you manning the gate,” said Kurren, “and I don’t think hurling rocks and petty fire-bombs is going to cause much of a threat, so I’ll stick around here, if you don’t mind.” He knew she would mind. His attempt at levity went unnoticed, or at least unappreciated, by Summer.

  “I don’t need your help,” she said curtly, still looking out over the wall into the surrounding darkness.

  “So what are you up here for?” Kurren replied, ignoring her continued slights.

  “It’s none of your concern, and I told you I don’t...” She stopped abruptly. Two figures emerged from inside the barn and started to run towards the settlement wall, between where Summer and Kurren stood and the gate. They both had bulging bags slung over their shoulders and were holding something in their hands, but Kurren couldn’t identify what. The objects glinted and were clearly metallic, and looked like cylinders of some kind. He felt his senses heighten. Something was not right.

  “What’s in the barn?” Kurren asked with no trace of his usual chirpiness. His military instincts had kicked in.

  “Nothing,” Summer said, unconvincingly, and then she tried to move away from him, off the platform and along the wall’s walkway in the direction of the gate, but Kurren caught her by the arm. Summer glowered at him, murderously. “Let go. Now!” she demanded, and Kurren could see her hand close around the handle of a knife in her belt pouch. Kurren let go of her arm, but he wasn’t going to give up.

  “Stop screwing me around!” he said, agitated. “Whatever else you think I am, above all else I’m a soldier. So if you really want my help, tell me what’s in that old building.”

  Summer stood there momentarily, weighing up the pros and cons of telling Kurren whatever it was she was hiding from him. The roamers from the barn continued at speed towards the gate. “The barn is where we hid your... vehicle, or whatever it is,” she said, finally. “The thing that you arrived in from the city. And it’s where your weapons are stashed too,” she added, reluctantly.

  Kurren look shocked. “Why the hell did you leave our weapons out there, for anyone to find?” he asked, genuinely baffled.

  “No roamer would know what they were or how to use them,” Summer replied, angry at having her decision questioned by this outsider. “And I couldn’t risk you finding them inside the settlement and using them against us.”

  Kurren looked back towards the running figures. They were now perhaps only forty or fifty seconds from reaching the wall, and so were easier to make out. He felt his heart rate climb. “We’ve got to stop them!” he said, urgently.

  “What have they got?” said Summer, squinting hard at the figures, trying to spot the danger.

  “Fuel cells,” said Kurren. “They’re carrying fuel cells from the transport.”

  “But they can’t know what they are,” said Summer. “What are they, anyway? Are they dangerous?”

  “If you don’t know what they are then chances are they won’t,” said Kurren, thinking on his feet. “They’re heavy, so maybe they want to use them to smash chunks out of the wall, who knows?”

  “But?” said Summer, sensing there was more.

  Kurren looked at her with a cold seriousness that gave Summer chills. “If they rupture, the explosion will be big enough to punch a hole in your wall,” he told her.

  “Damn it!” Summer cursed, and then without another word she started to sprint along the wall towards them, unhooking the bow from over her shoulder as she ran.

  Kurren was about to follow when he heard a familiar voice.

  “Kurren, what’s going on?” It was Maria. Kurren looked down and saw Maria standing at the foot of the stone steps with Ethan.

  “Roamer attack,” he shouted down to them. “Look, Sal, they’ve got…”

  “How many?” said Ethan urgently, cutting Kurren off mid-sentence.

  “I don’t know, maybe forty or fifty. They’re pretty organized...” Kurren replied, but before he could add any details Ethan had set off running in the direction of the gate. Maria looked as if she was about to follow when Kurren shouted down to her to wait. She stopped and looked up at him, puzzled. Kurren came half-way down the steps to be closer so he didn’t need to shout. “Sal, the roamers found our transport,” he said. “These idiot rangers hid it in a building about two-hundred meters outside the wall. They’ve taken a couple of fuel cells.”

  Maria understood instantly. “If they rupture they could blow these walls sky high.”

  “I know,” said Kurren. “The red-haired pain-in-the-ass has gone charging off after them already.”

  “I’ve got to warn Ethan!” Maria said urgently. She started running, but again Kurren called for her to wait.

  “Sal, forget him!” he called, frustrated that Maria’s first reaction was to run to Ethan and not help him. “We know where the transport is, let’s make use of this distraction and get the hell out of here, before they change their minds and burn us as heretics or whatever.”

  “Kurren, no, we need to get him!” Maria protested.

  “Sal, I know you like this kid, but he’s with them and we need to look out for ourselves,” said Kurren. “Leave him and let’s get the hell off this forsaken rock!”

  Maria ran back and climbed the bottom few stone stairs so that she was only a few meters from Kurren. “He’s with us, Kurren,” she said, enthusiastically. “He’s going to come back to the moon base with us.”

  That stopped Kurren in his tracks. “What?” he said.

  “I’ll explain later, but he’s going to help us,” said Maria. “We need to get him, and preferably before he gets blown into a hundred pieces.”

  Kurren nodded and then smiled as an idea came to him. “Okay, Sal, go get your boyfriend, I have a plan.”

  Maria felt like charging up the stairs and punching him in his smug face, when an explosion rocked the settlement causing both to instinctively duck and cover their heads. A section of the wall between them and the gate had erupted and sent flaming debris raining down into the settlement, igniting the roofs of some nearby cabins and huts.

  “Damn it!” Kurren said, and then he peered down at Maria with the sort of unruffled determination he was renowned for. “Go and fetch lover-boy and then be ready.”

  “Be ready for what?” Maria asked crossly. The quip
about Ethan had irritated her.

  “For me to arrive with some wheels and roll us all on out of here,” he said with a grin, and with that, he disappeared over the top of the wall and began climbing down to the ground.

  Maria understood. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for a fight, and ran in the direction of the explosion. Within moments she was standing beside a group of four rangers, who had come down from the platform next to the gate and were waiting, staffs raised, ready to take on anything that came through the breach. A group of settlers had started to form a fire-fighting chain, passing along buckets of water from the well to other settlers who were dousing the flames on the cabins that had caught fire. Maria spotted Ethan just ahead of the group and ran alongside him.

  “I’m here to help,” she said to Ethan’s back, out of breath from the run. Ethan turned around, surprised to see her.

  “No, Sal, I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Look, Ethan, I’m probably a better fighter than everyone here,” said Maria, without ego, “and it looks like you need the help. So just give me a weapon, okay?” Ethan meant what he said about not wanting Maria to get hurt, but he’d also seen her fight, so he tossed her his staff. Maria caught it and said, “And do me a favor?”

  “What’s that?”

  “Don’t die!”

  A shout from on the wall brought their senses into sharp focus. “They’re coming through,” said Ethan calmly. A ranger drew up beside Ethan and handed him another staff. “Ready?” he asked.

  “After you,” replied Maria.

  Five roamers came charging through the burning opening in the wall, two of them catching fire as they did so, yet the flames appeared not to bother them. The front line fought them back, but one roamer smashed through. Maria advanced faster than the others and slammed the end of her staff into its face, smashing the nose into its skull. It fell, limp and lifeless, to the floor.

  More came, again catching fire, but continuing on, as if the flames were nothing more than splatters of mud. Maria could smell the burning flesh and she struggled not to gag. The front line of rangers again fought them back, maintaining an arc around the opening in the wall, trying to prevent any from breaching the inner settlement area. Then a roamer hurled itself at one of the defenders, wrapping its arms around him and setting him alight. The ranger screamed as the flames torched the skin on his face and neck, causing panic amongst the nearby fighters as they both tried to help the injured ranger and tear the roamer away. The gap in the arc allowed another burning roamer through, and this one ran straight at Maria. She waited, patiently, then dodged and swept its legs from under it, knocking it flat. Spinning around, she pummeled the end of the heavy wooden staff into its chest and heard the crack of bone as its sternum collapsed. She drew the staff back and looked around. Ethan was several meters away, near the main cluster of fighters, and holding strong. Then she looked beyond him towards the breach and saw Summer on the wall, loosing arrows at some of the roamers that were advancing through. Maria watched as Summer drew another arrow and nocked it, but then the ranger hesitated and lowered her bow swiftly, a dread look on her face.

  “Move away! Move, now!” she heard Summer shout to fighters inside the walls, but they did not hear her. Maria ran a little closer, trying to understand the reason for Summer’s frantic warning. “Move clear!” she heard Summer shouting again. She was trying to get a shot, her bow was waving from side to side, up and down, string at full tension, but Summer did not shoot. Maria moved again trying to get a better view, and then she spotted it – a roamer, prone in the center of the melee, unseen by the rangers. Its right leg was smashed and contorted, and the other was on fire. It was dragging itself forward, one hand clawing at the dirt, while in the other it held a metal cylinder. A fuel cell. Maria wasted no time, she turned back to Ethan.

  “Ethan, fall back, fall back now!” she shouted urgently.

  Ethan heard Maria’s cry and then saw the creature on the ground. He turned and sprinted away from it, legs and lungs burning with pain, crying out for others to follow him. Seconds later the fuel cell exploded. Bodies were flung out in all directions, roamer and ranger alike. The shockwave sent Maria hurtling backwards through the air. She landed awkwardly, but without much pain. Something broke her fall. Dazed, winded, ears ringing and unable to hear she called out to Ethan, frantically. She could not even hear her own voice. She looked around, desperate to find Ethan, and then she saw him. He was face down, blown perhaps ten meters into the settlement by the force of the explosion. He was not moving.

  Maria tried to get up, but dizziness overcame her and she could not stand. Then her nausea was intensified by fear. Through the smoke she could see more figures appearing. The remaining roamers were coming in and now there was no-one to stop them. She fought to stand and with an intense force of effort managed to get herself upright, but then seconds later her legs gave way and she dropped back to her knees. Again she called out to Ethan, but again the cries barely registered in her own ears, sounding muffled and distorted. Ethan was still lying prone, blood visible from his ears.

  Maria looked around for a weapon, but could find nothing. A roamer advanced toward her and soon she was faced with its cold, indifferent eyes. She scrambled away from it, but it was no use, she could not muster the strength to escape. She closed her eyes and waited. Her mind was filled with thoughts of her mother. Through the eyes of her younger self, she watched as her mother’s hand was snatched away from hers and then, powerless to do anything to help, looked on as she floated, helplessly into the cold darkness of space. She had never forgotten the look on her face. The look of someone knowing they were about to die and lose everyone they ever loved.

  “I’m sorry,” said Maria, tears wetting her face. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it up to you.”

  She had always wondered how it would feel to die. She was going to find out now. Then her thoughts turned to Ethan – the planetsider she had convinced to help her, and maybe even to love her. Did Ethan love her? she wondered, and in that instant she realized that she actually wanted him to. Did that mean she loved him too? She would never find out, because soon this too would be snatched away from her, forever.

  She opened her eyes and looked upon the face of the roamer standing over her. Its eyes showed no evidence of hatred or malice. Its heart pulsated with no desires. In all the ways that mattered, it was dead already. The roamer held in its grimy, flame-blistered hand a crude wooden club. It raised the weapon above its head, all the time looking at her, coldly and with disquieting indifference. Everything appeared to Maria to be happening in slow motion. She refused to close her eyes; if she was to die, she would stare death in the face and spite it. The weapon began to fall and she waited for the pain to strike, but the end did not come. Instead, the creature spasmed and its face contorted, not so much in pain as in confusion and bewilderment. It fell to its knees and then crumpled over backwards in a lifeless heap.

  Maria’s eyes focused on a figure behind it. It was screaming at her, but she could barely make out the words. It shouted again. “Sal! Are you okay?” Chris Kurren stood in front of her, smoke oozing from the barrel of a rifle. He swung around again and Maria saw the muzzle flash as he fired. The sound was still muffled, but her hearing was returning. “Sal! Get up, we’ve got to go, now!” Kurren shouted, the words barely registering. He was pulling her to her feet. She put an arm around his shoulder and her head started to clear. Again the muzzle of the rifle flashed and this time she heard the shots ring out. In front of them two more roamers fell to the ground. “I have the transport. Where’s the kid?” he shouted.

  Maria groggily gestured over towards where she had last seen Ethan, lying prostrate on the ground. He was still there, but she didn’t know if he was alive or dead. Maria felt panic overwhelm her. Please don’t let him be dead, she thought. She implored Kurren to get him, to save him. But all that came out was an incoherent babble. Kurren dragged Maria to the transport and put her inside, closing t
he door. He aimed and shot another roamer, then ran around to the driver’s side of the transport and opened the door. More roamers were coming in through the opening. He considered getting in and just leaving. Screw these bastards he thought. He only wanted to save Sal. But the mission needed Ethan too, and besides, Sal would never forgive him if he left the kid. She wouldn’t leave without him. “Damn it!” he cried out in frustration, realizing he had to go back. He slammed the door of the transport and ran towards Ethan. From the hip, he fired two more bursts, hitting three roamers and stopping them in their tracks. He reached Ethan and, slinging the rifle over his shoulder, hoisted him onto his back. “What the hell are you made of? You weigh a ton,” he said out loud, straining under the added weight. Ethan just groaned. Kurren battled his way back to the transport as quickly as possible and then unceremoniously dumped Ethan into the back compartment. He groaned again. “You’re welcome, kid,” said Kurren, and then darted back to the driver’s side door. Standing in front of it was Summer – bow raised, arrow nocked and pointing directly at his heart.

  “Put down that weapon or I’ll kill you!” she demanded, venom seething from every pore. Kurren held up his hands, a conciliatory gesture that Summer had seen him give before, and she trusted it even less this time.

  “Look, lady, I’m doing want you wanted,” he said. “I’m getting out of your hair. So how about you lower the bow and let me get the hell out of here?”

  Summer did not flinch. “You can go, but you’re not taking Ethan,” she said. “You think I’m stupid? I saw you put him in the back, don’t deny it!” She pulled back harder on the string, adding even more tension. Her fingers, calloused and bloody from the arrows she had shot previously, throbbed with pain.

  “Okay...” Kurren said, his hand still raised. He could see that Summer was on the edge and would respond at the slightest provocation. “I was just trying to save him. Okay?...” Kurren said again, trying to soothe her. He slowly took the rifle from his back, dropped it and then backed away.