The Battle for the Solar System (Complete Trilogy)

by Sweeney, Stephen

  “But you do have an idea,” Chaz growled.

  Parks ignored him. “If word of this got out, there would be panic on quite literally a galactic scale. All bets would be off and we’d be plunged into sheer anarchy. What is happening here today and what happened to Mitikas is only the beginning. If we are unable to permanently halt the advances of the Pandoran army, then in five or six years’ time, we could well be looking at the total destruction of all humanity. You need to understand – we had to do this quietly. Some things people are better off not knowing.”

  “And exactly when were you planning on telling us, Commodore?” Dodds asked. “Didn’t we have the right to know what you were planning?”

  Parks’ expression relaxed a little. “Funny you should say that, Dodds. You actually witnessed firsthand what happened when the last group of ATAF pilots found everything out. When Patrick Dean and the other Yellow Dogs uncovered Operation Sudarberg, they did the first thing that came into their heads – they ran. They threatened to blow the whole thing wide open, making the plan not only public news, but also give the Pandoran forces a heads-up. We handled the situation the only way we could.”

  Dodds’ mind ticked over. “My God, you did have him killed!”

  “We didn’t have any choice. We had to keep the Enemy and everyone else in the dark. I am loath to call it a tough decision to make, because it wasn’t. We had to do it!”

  “Couldn’t you have just had him locked up? Declared him insane? There was no need to take it that far.”

  “Who’s Patrick Dean?” Estelle demanded, staring at Dodds.

  Dodds tightened his grip on Chaz, attempting to haul the man away from Parks. Chaz resisted. “He was a CSN starfighter pilot. He came to my house one night when I was still on Earth, about two weeks before I rejoined the service. He’d been shot. Back then, I didn’t know who by or why.”

  “You never told me about that,” Estelle said.

  “Yeah, you never told me, either,” Enrique added. “And you normally tell me everything.”

  “I was ordered not to by Admiral Turner,” Dodds said. “A bit like how they told us to forget about those three Dart pilots we shot down in Spirit.” He saw a flicker of recognition pass over Estelle, Kelly and Enrique’s faces. “I was ordered to forget the man ever existed.”

  “Sounds about right,” Chaz growled.

  “He was one of the original ATAF test pilots,” Parks said. “He and the other members of the Yellow Dogs had been participating in the ATAF project for months before you were all invited to Xalan. The footage you saw back then was actually recorded during their training exercises.”

  “I thought it all looked a little too real,” Estelle said.

  “Me, too,” Kelly said. “Even the best special effects give themselves away, and those videos had none of it.”

  Dodds turned back to Parks. “I thought you were one of the good guys, Commodore. I thought you were on our side.”

  Chaz snorted.

  “I would never have thought that you would ever pull something like this,” Dodds said, suddenly feeling very disappointed. “Why us Parks? Out of everyone you could’ve picked, why us?”

  “We needed people who would be willing to die for the cause,” Parks said. “There are thousands of people who claim that they would, but they don’t actually mean it; not when it comes as directly as this. What made us pick you was Dean’s chance turning up at your house. At that point, we needed a new team and we suddenly realised that the White Knights were just what we needed. We picked you, Dodds, because you always wanted to be a hero.” He then nodded to Estelle, Enrique and Kelly in succession. “You, because you wanted to prove you were worth more than what you were born into; you, because you believe that it is what you were fated to do; you, because you wanted to be an inspiration to others …” And then, to Chaz, “And you, because you’d do anything for your family.”

  “My God, Commodore,” Estelle breathed. “But why send people? Why not deploy the ATAFs and the bombs remotely?”

  “That went to the vote, but the nays won by a landslide. We couldn’t risk it. The chance of the Pandorans detecting the link and tracing it to the ATAFs was too high. Attempting to coordinate a remote battle against them would also prove next to impossible.”

  “Automation,” Dodds said.

  “That was also rejected by vote. No one wanted to trust this to computers. We had to put people into the seats.” Parks was quiet for a moment, then said, “And at the end of the day we had to ask ourselves one question – what are five lives compared to one-hundred-billion?”

  Dodds’ face darkened. “And to think that I thought that being a part of the ATAF project was a great privilege; that the five of us were receiving a great honour!” He relinquished his grip on Chaz. “Chaz, hit him,” he said coldly.

  “Dodds, that’s not cool!” Estelle shouted at him. “Lieutenant Koonan, I understand that you’re feeling hurt and let down right now, but this isn’t achieving anything.”

  “Chaz, what did you mean when you said this was Parks’ last request?” Kelly said.

  “Chaz used to work as a government agent before he joined the CSN,” Natalia said, to another snort from Chaz.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Dodds said, looking around at her. “You’re telling me Chaz was a spy?”

  “Yes,” Estelle and Natalia said in unison. “For five years,” Natalia added.

  “Bull,” Dodds said in disbelief.

  “No, she’s telling the truth,” Parks said. “Before he joined the White Knights, Mr Koonan was a member of the Confederation Secret Service. He had been working for us since 2612.”

  “Working for you is a rather lofty way of describing it,” Chaz said.

  Dodds felt the big man relax somewhat and he finally sat back, away from Parks. Dodds at last released his hold on Chaz as he shrugged off Estelle, Kelly and Enrique, who were still attempting to restrain him. The big man slumped back down into his seat, looking still angry, but apparently without the need to express it physically. Even so, the guards continued to mark him.

  “You’re a spy?” Kelly said, with a trace of admiration in her voice.

  “Not by choice,” Chaz glowered, angry eyes still fixed on Parks. “Like Parks said, I was posted in Imperial space five years ago, just as everything was kicking off. Natalia and I bumped into each other on a number of separate occasions then.

  “To begin with, my duties merely consisted of low profile espionage – things like surveillance, interrogations, and computer and systems hacking. Then, as the Senate started their fight back and the threat of the Pandoran army grew larger, I ended up performing a lot more wet work.”

  “So, you knew all about the Pandorans well before we met them on Arlos,” Dodds said.

  Chaz nodded.

  “Did you know what they were capable of back then, too?”

  “Yes, and in answer to your next question, I screwed up. I made an error of judgement. I took a chance that that man was dead. At that moment, I was thinking along the same lines as Parks – the less you know, the better. For you and for me. I didn’t want to start pumping bullets into a dead body, making you lot start asking too many questions, and then having one of you put a round into me, thinking I’d gone mad.”

  Dodds looked to Estelle. He got the impression she had asked Chaz about the incident in the morgue already. “But why wouldn’t you want us to know something as important as that?” Dodds said.

  “Because I was afraid that I would never get to see my wife or son again.”

  “Why wouldn’t you?”

  “The Confederacy keeps us apart, as a way to persuade me to do all their dirty work for them,” the big man answered grimly, staring down at the floor of the APC. “Like I said – I never joined the service by choice; I was forced. I didn’t think that the Confederation actually believed in coercion. It’s a long story, and I’d rather not talk about it right now.” His mood sounded to be all of a sudden tur
ning sombre.

  “Did you work alone?” Kelly asked.

  Chaz was silent for a moment, then he shook his head. “No, I had a partner. Well, I say partner, but they were more like my handler.”

  “What happened to him? What was his name?” Dodds asked.

  There was a pause. “Her name was Clare Barber,” Chaz said quietly.

  Barber? Hadn’t that been the name of the agent from … Oh hell.

  “Chaz, I’m sorry,” Estelle said. “I’d never have ordered you to do that if I’d known …” She trailed off.

  Dodds met Natalia’s eyes, which appeared to be searching for an explanation as to what had happened. Dodds explained the events that had occurred at Arlos starport earlier that year, as sensitively as he could. No one interrupted him, not even Chaz who sat quietly hunched over. For a time, the APC lay in silence.

  “This can’t be the only way to beat them,” Dodds said eventually. “There must be someone the Pandorans listen to, someone at the head of the chain.”

  “There is,” Natalia answered. “Fleet Admiral Zackaria.”

  Ah. Now he understood. “So, that explains why you were excited that he had spoken to me.”

  “Zackaria spoke to you?” Parks said, looking interested, if a little sceptical.

  “From the way the lieutenant described it to me,” Natalia said before Dodds could speak, “it sounded more like he was doing so because he held a grudge, rather than because he was open to negotiation.”

  “What exactly did he say to you?” Parks wanted to know.

  Dodds reiterated his meeting with Zackaria as best as he could remember.

  After he was done, Parks only swore, then said, “You should know that that’s why we needed him alive during Operation Menelaus and why I had you stand down at Phylent. If we could’ve captured him alive, it was possible we may have been able to persuade him to call a ceasefire. After you spaced him from Ifrit, I had to make the choice between killing him right there and then or letting a very dangerous and powerful man escape. Allowing him to live could grant us a future opportunity to take him alive, whilst killing him would mean only that we would have absolutely no way of controlling the Pandoran army. I considered that killing him might really be the halting factor we were looking for, but I eventually figured that such a move would actually only make matters worse.”

  “So, you chose the lesser of two evils,” Dodds said.

  “Precisely. Either way, people would continue to die before we found a solution.”

  “I tried to speak to him, too,” Kelly said, “when he came to our cell. But he ignored me.”

  “That’s how it’s been for the last few years,” Parks said. “Their world is very black and white.”

  “Rissard?” Dodds said.

  “No. He might be Zackaria’s second-in-command, but as far as we can tell he doesn’t hold as much influence over the army. We suspect that a ceasefire order from Rissard would actually be ignored.”

  Hell, Dodds thought. There really was no other way.

  “So, what now?” Dodds asked after a while.

  “We carry on,” Parks said. “Despite everything you’ve now heard, the fact remains that we are on a planet that we are likely to soon lose to the Pandorans. As soon as we reach the coast, we will begin a withdrawal and consider our options from there.”

  “What about keeping things quiet?” Estelle said. “This sort of thing is hardly likely to go unnoticed.”

  “Did you notice the hundreds of millions of people we were shipping out of the frontier Independent systems, over the last eighteen months?” Parks asked. “We’ve had an effective media blackout in force for over six years. Nothing can be broadcast without adhering to strict guidelines. It’s like the report that you supplied after Cardinal was destroyed and the one that you submitted after retrieving the data card from Arlos. All of them were chopped, edited and rearranged before they were filed.

  “When the Pandorans invaded Mythos, they cut off all communications within the Coyote system. Though it meant that the invasion went unnoticed for the first forty-eight hours, the whole thing has been a sort of blessing in disguise. For the time being, the threats posed by the Pandoran army will remain out of the public space.

  “Now, I suggest you take a leaf out of Mr Todd’s book and all get some rest.” He gestured in the direction of Enrique, who was once again asleep. “We have a lot to do once we reach the coast, if we want to effect planet leave before the Pandorans turn to nuclear strikes, which they will invariably do at some point in the near future.”

  Dodds sighed inwardly and sank down against the side of the APC. Even if there was anything left to say, he wouldn’t be talking; he had too much on his mind. If everything Parks and Natalia was saying was true, then he was about to be called upon to fulfil a truly momentous task – to save the human race from total destruction. It was as if a long-held dream was finally about to come true.

  But at what cost?

  Yes, he had always wanted to be a hero. Just not a dead one.

  XXIII

  — As One —

  After a number of hours driving, the APC eventually found its way to the coast. Dodds opened his eyes from his doze as he felt the vehicle slow and the driver begin talking. The others were sitting awake, waiting for it to come to a complete halt. None of them were talking to one another. Soon enough, the APC came to a stop and the rear doors opened up, early evening light spilling into the back. Parks ordered them all to leave and assemble themselves quickly, once again reminding them that they were in the middle of a war zone.

  The Knights trooped out and Dodds found that they were on the outskirts of an encampment, set up by allied forces. They weren’t quite on the coast, but the sea that met New Malaga’s beach was clearly visible from where they stood. Personnel milled about on the flat, dusty plain, packing up and dismantling equipment. Tanks, other APCs, fighter aircraft, supply boxes and crates rested on the ground, waiting to be transported and stored back in a lander before its departure. The entire encampment was domed by a huge shield canopy. Like the personal shields the Pandoran soldiers had carried, its outer membrane walls rippled gracefully with blue light.

  Beneath a number of tents, Dodds could make out groups of people. Most appeared to be resting, either seated on collapsible stools or the ground. Some were eating, others were tending to their equipment, a handful appeared to be asleep. None looked to be in high spirits.

  Around them there were also wounded personnel – some limped about, others cradled their injured limbs. He saw two men carrying the body of another between them. The body was clearly dead. Dodds recalled a similar situation just over a year ago, after he had ditched his TAF during Operation Clean Sweep. He had watched, his assistance unwanted, as the bodies of a man and young woman were carried to medevac.

  “You bastard. You stupid, stupid bastard,” someone had said to him. “You’re going to jail, dude.”

  He looked away.

  Parks identified himself to a man standing on the other side of the shield wall who lowered a quadrant to permit the group access. It was quickly raised once they were all inside, the APC they had been travelling in turning around and driving off in another direction.

  “We’re abandoning Mythos to the Enemy,” Parks stated bluntly. “We have incurred far too many losses today and we cannot afford any more.”

  “Sir, the ATAFs—” Estelle started.

  Parks pointed, heads turning to follow the direction he indicated. “They have been successfully salvaged from Ifrit’s cargo bay. Though Ifrit itself is obviously a lost cause. We got to them just before the Enemy did. They must have guessed that they would be somewhere onboard. Either that, or someone tipped them off.”

  Though he had not noticed them before, Dodds now clearly saw the five Confederation starfighters settled on the dusty ground, apparently still without a single dent or ding anywhere on their armour. He gazed at them for a while, feeling as though it had been years since he had
set eyes on the sleek black armour. But after what he had just heard from Natalia, he wasn’t sure if he could now look at them in the same light as he had over the last six months. They now represented so much more than what he had originally thought them to be.

  “There’s Potter,” Natalia said. “I should go.”

  Parks gave her a look that seemed to say not before time.

  Natalia ignored it. “It was nice to meet you, Simon.”

  “And you,” Dodds said.

  “A shame that it couldn’t have been under different circumstances.”

  “Maybe another time.” Dodds felt Estelle’s eyes upon him. He did his best not to catch the somewhat accusing look that she was giving him.

  Natalia seemed to struggle for something else to say to him, but eventually gave in and looked over at Chaz. “Goodbye, Chaz. It was good to see you again.”

  Chaz said nothing, barely even acknowledging that the woman had spoken to him. Dodds thought it likely that Chaz was feeling negative towards her, for not sharing what she knew with him about Operation Sudarberg. After it became clear he had nothing to say to her, Natalia nodded to the others before walking off to join Potter and his unit. Dodds wondered what sort of history Chaz and Natalia had had together. Had any kind of close relationship they might have shared been crushed by the revelations of the past few hours? He had always suspected that Parks and Chaz had history, but with the man’s few words it had been difficult – if not impossible – for him to unearth any kind of significant details.

  And Chaz had a wife and two children? He would never have thought so.

  “Mr Koonan,” Parks said. “A word.” He beckoned the big man to follow and the two walked a little way out of earshot, before Parks began speaking.

  The four remaining Knights waited out the resolution in silence. Dodds noted that Chaz was acting a lot more subdued than usual, as if a heavy cloud was hanging over his head. Dodds couldn’t hear the words, but Parks appeared to be giving him something of a dressing-down, though he was speaking in a calm, steady voice. Chaz appeared quiet until the very end, when his lips moved in a recognisable “Yes, sir.”