The Second Fall Read online

  The

  Second Fall

  Book two in The Planetsider Trilogy

  G J OGDEN

  Copyright © 2019 G J Ogden

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Ogden Media Ltd

  Cover design by germancreative

  Editing by S L Ogden

  www.ogdenmedia.net

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The first book in the Planetsider trilogy took me almost twenty years to complete, simply because I gave up early on in the process and allowed it to languish, unfinished, until I was nearly forty years old. I eventually published it in February 2018, after finally getting my act together (the milestone age may have had something to do with this…) and six months after that I had completed the first draft of this second novel. So, this book is dedicated to never giving up.

  To those of you reading this who believe you could never write a novel: you know what? You can.

  Special thanks go to Sarah for her work assessing and editing this novel and for helping to make it the best it could be.

  And thanks, as always, to anyone who is reading this. It means a lot and I hope you enjoy it.

  Chapter 1

  Maria’s boots thumped in time with the pulsating sirens that echoed down the long street leading towards the space port in the UEC’s government precinct. In front of her was Diana Neviah, her red hair pressed back by the rush of air as she too ran for her life, away from the four pursuing soldiers belonging to James Kurren’s newly-formed regime. Maria glanced back and saw the soldiers rush past the bodies of Diana’s security escorts, both of whom now lay motionless in slowly expanding pools of blood. The soldiers halted abruptly and aimed their weapons; Maria jinked sharply and heard the bullets ricochet off the smooth street surface, but neither she nor Diana was hit.

  “Go right, now, now, now!” Maria screamed, hoping her voice would carry to Diana over the din of the sirens, and then she watched with relief as her friend veered down the side-street that led to the gated side entrance. Maria followed, but chanced another look at their pursuers, who had now resumed their chase. Their failed attempt to take the women out had given Maria the window she needed to escape, assuming her codes still worked, but there was no point worrying about that now. As she slipped down the side-street she caught sight of the Teardrop, poised atop an imposing metal tower, close to the apex of the protective dome that enveloped the prestigious government precinct of the UEC base. She tried to shut out the memory of what had happened there only minutes earlier; there would be time to reflect later, assuming she could make it away from Kurren’s soldiers alive. But seeing the venue of Kurren’s treachery again brought the images flooding back and there was nothing she could do to block them. Kurren’s choice of setting was no accident, Maria realized. The Teardrop was built as a symbol of peace and as place to unify nations but, just as it had failed to serve this noble purpose over a century ago, Kurren’s actions had ensured its legacy would remain one of death and lies instead of hope and truth.

  The Teardrop was not its official name. It had been built as a symbol of peace and unity, designed to represent openness and transparency; a place where nothing was hidden. It was built to host the signing of a treaty that would guarantee energy security for all planetary nations; a treaty that was symbolically ratified with a solemn tear, shed by the final governor to sign, giving rise to its nickname. As the organization responsible for mining and refining orrum, the mineral essential to global energy production, the UEC moon mining base was considered the ideal location for the summit. It was a monumental moment of history matched only by its colossal failure. While the leaders of the planet’s various nations gathered on the base and breathed a collective sigh of relief, the UEC set in motion a plan to secure unilateral control of orrum supply, essentially holding all nations to ransom. In the battle that followed, the vast orbital refinery that surrounded the planet was destroyed, bombarding the planet’s surface with highly unstable and energetic orrum. The destruction of the refinery led to the annihilation of almost all life planetside, and left the UEC stranded on their moon base and locked in a bitter, generations-long feud with GPS, the space-based force that was established to prevent precisely such a threat to global energy supply. Maria had hoped that the Teardrop could finally serve its true purpose and bring about peace, this time between the UEC and GPS but, once again, the tears shed were ones of sorrow, not of joy.

  The crushing reality of what had just happened, and what was to come, threatened to overwhelm Maria. She pressed her eyes shut, trying to squeeze the memory from her mind, but the images were so vivid.

  Did it really happen? Maria asked herself. It can’t be true! Not after coming so close... It can’t end like this.

  Maria reached the gate and slammed into the metal railings at close to full speed, using them as a brake.

  “The gate is locked!” shouted Diana, flustered and out of breath.

  Palms stinging from the impact with the gate, Maria slid across to the access panel and flipped open the cover. Far behind them at the entrance to the side-street the UEC soldiers were just turning the corner, but they did not stop to open fire this time; instead they continued forward, closing the gap so that the next shots would not miss.

  “They’re coming, Sal…” said Diana, surprising calmly.

  “I know…” Maria replied with matching coolness, as she tapped a sequence of numbers and characters into the panel. She finished the sequence and a red light illuminated around the panel. “Damn it!” Maria cursed. She flexed her fingers, trying to squeeze the pain and tension out of them, but they were still throbbing, and also now shaking from the adrenaline of the escape.

  “Now would be a good time to open the gate, Sal…” said Diana, less calmly.

  Maria breathed in and exhaled slowly, trying to calm her frayed nerves, and started the sequence again. The side gate was rarely used, but in all the time she had been an active pilot with the UEC, personal access codes from officers with a rank of captain or above would work. She had been largely off-base for the last four years, so it was possible the rules had been changed. If that was the case, she thought, then they were in trouble. Maria finished the sequence and waited; the delay was only a matter of milliseconds, but to Maria it felt like hours. This time the panel surround illuminated in a warm green hue and Maria heard the bolts unlock. She yanked the gate open and threw herself inside.

  “Come on!” she shouted to Diana, who was already half-way through the gate before Maria had finished speaking.

  Bullets ricocheted off the dense metal grid as the UEC soldiers, having spotted the gate being opened, halted their pursuit and launched another assault. Maria shoved Diana unceremoniously to the deck and then crawled to the side, where the base’s perimeter wall would cut off the soldier’s line of sight, at least until they got right up close to the gate. Diana appeared alongside her, also crawling, the knees and elbows of her once-pristine white suit now scuffed and blackened. She reached Maria’s side and they both climbed to their feet, backs pressed against the wall, breathing labored and chests heavy from the exertion.

  Maria pressed her eyes shut again, trying to focus on their next move; trying to figure a way out of this mess, but the memory of Ku
rren overwhelmed her once more, and her mind was back inside the Teardrop. She was looking across the enormous, black glass table at Diana Neviah, the Premier of Global Power Security; the organization that had failed to prevent the UEC’s ill-fated power-play more than a century ago, cursing them to remain trapped on their space station, locked in a bitter war with their new enemy, while the planet burned and rotted and festered beneath them to the point of near extinction. Against Maria’s advice, she was flanked by only two security escorts; Maria had suggested a larger party and more security, but Diana refused, arguing that a larger force would show mistrust and make Thomas Archer, the UEC’s Governor, twitchy and on edge. Both Maria and Diana watched with eager anticipation as Archer ran through his pre-prepared speech, talking tall about setting aside the hatreds of the past and forgiving each other for the cruelties each had inflicted on the other. Maria and Diana had heard and read this speech a dozen times before, and so both were listening on autopilot, waiting patiently for Archer to shut up and sign his name on the document, allowing Diana to step forward and officially seal the accords. But that moment never came.

  “Maria?”

  Diana’s voice cut short the flashback, and brought Maria back into the moment.

  “Are you okay, are you hit?” asked Diana, checking Maria over, as bullets continued to bounce off the gate, sounding like a frenzied percussion instrument.

  “I’m fine,” said Maria, re-focusing.

  “Then what’s our next move, Captain?” asked Diana, smoothing strands of red hair away from her face, which was damp with sweat.

  “Now we wait to see if Kurren’s coup extends to the Flying Corp,” replied Maria. “And it’s Commander now, actually.”

  Diana caught sight of movement out of the corner of her eye and looked out across the courtyard to see six armed guards approaching from the barracks block.

  “Well, Commander, I hope your new rank carries some sway with your companions over there, or else I’m going to need a new suit, because this one will soon be full of holes.”

  “I think that suit’s past saving,” Maria replied, pointing out the worst of the rips and black marks.

  Diana inspected the damage and sighed. “And this was my favorite too.”

  The crack of weapons fire from outside the walls, louder and more concentrated than before, focused their attention, causing both to instinctively jolt back and press their bodies against the wall.

  “What are they firing at, can they see us here?” wondered Diana out loud.

  Another ripple of gunfire pierced the air, but this time it was from the base guards, moving towards them inside the compound. They had spread out and were firing through the gate at Kurren’s soldiers. As they got closer, Maria recognized two of guards and breathed a deep sigh of relief.

  “It’s okay,” said Maria, “I think we’re going to be okay. I know them.”

  “How do we know they’re not part of this?” said Diana.

  “Well, for starters, they’re not firing at us. But that’s Commander Kira Raina; she runs this base. She supported the peace process, eventually anyway, and she has no love for Kurren, I can tell you that for certain. The other is Lieutenant Aster. He’s green, but as loyal as they come.”

  “Hopefully, you’re right,” said Diana, sinking forward and placing her hands on her knees, suddenly feeling intense exhaustion overwhelm her. “Let’s hope your new rank helps too.”

  “If Kurren has done what I think he’s done, my rank no longer matters,” said Maria, then, smiling weakly, added, “but Kira and I go way back, so hopefully friendship still counts for something.”

  Two of the guards broke off and ran towards Maria and Diana, stopping a few meters from them. Diana watched with interest as the first, a young man, dropped to a kneeling position and aimed his rifle at the gate, occasionally calling out orders to the others. The second was a woman, whose thoughtful eyes, surrounded by soft lines, hinted at her seniority, though she was perhaps not much older than Maria in actual years. Her brow was furrowed and her lips were pressed together and turned down at the corners and, as their eyes met, Diana felt momentarily afraid that she was about to be attacked. But the woman instead nodded respectfully and focused her attention on Maria.

  “Are you hurt, Sal?” said Commander Raina, though her level tone did not betray any hint of personal concern.

  “I’m fine, Kira,” said Maria, “but we have ourselves a real situation.”

  “You’re not kidding,” said Raina. “The commlink went crazy about ten minutes ago and now all the blue boots have switched to a scrambled frequency. There’s chatter about a takeover.”

  “Blue boots?” said Diana. She had regained her breath now and was standing upright with her hands together in front of her.

  “Sorry, ma’am,” said Raina. “It’s what we call the Security Corp., on account of their fancy blue armor.”

  “I see,” said Diana. “It’s Diana, by the way; no need for formalities.”

  There was a cry of pain and they all looked to see one of the base guards lying on the floor, holding his leg. Another swept in swiftly to drag him out of the line of fire, and the battle continued. The younger man who had also peeled off from the main group ran to take his place, and immediately started firing through the gate. He issued an order to advance, and they moved forward as one, concentrating their fire through a breach in the gate’s dense web of metal fibers. Two guards then split off and climbed into the guard towers, which perched on either side of the gate. Echoing off the smooth surfaces of the surrounding buildings, they heard the shout, “Fall back!”

  Lieutenant Aster sprinted back to Raina, weapon held at low-ready, chest-rising and falling rapidly from the exertion and adrenaline. “We’ve pushed them back, sir. We should be safe, at least for now.”

  “Thank you, Lieutenant,” said Raina. “Put the base on alert. Seal the main gate and man all the watch towers.”

  “Yes sir,” said the officer, and then he stepped away from the group, issuing the new orders through the commlink built into his Personal Vital Signs Monitor, or PVSM.

  Maria pushed away from the wall and sneaked a look through the gate. The UEC soldiers had retreated down the side-street, and she could see at least two bodies lying on the street’s smooth, silvery surface. With shooters in the guard towers, it would take a far larger force than had pursued them to break through, and now that firing had stopped, an eerie quiet swept over the compound.

  “They’ll be back,” said Maria without taking her eyes off the retreating soldiers. “We have to get Diana off this base and back to the GPS station. We won’t have much time.”

  “Why?” said Raina, “What the hell is going on?”

  Raina’s question brought the events flooding back again, but this time she was ready for the rush of emotions and managed to control them, rather than submit to them. She looked into her friend’s eyes and said, “Kurren has killed Archer.”

  “What?” exclaimed Raina, drawing back. “How? Why?”

  In her mind’s eye, Maria watched it happen all over again. It still felt like a dream, or rather a nightmare. She was back in the Teardrop, looking across the table at Diana. Both of them had been smiling broadly and Maria remembered feeling almost giddy with excitement at what was about to happen. Governor Archer was standing to her left side, leaning over the huge black table that sat in the center of the Teardrop, on which lay the treaty document which, once signed, would end well over a century of war. In accordance with tradition, instead of biometric signing, the treaty had been fabricated from a physical material, and would be hand-signed with a pen. In stark contrast to this archaic method of documentation, two small archivist drones hummed around the room, recording holos of the occasion for posterity and for later broadcasting to the citizens of both the UEC and GPS. Both sides had decided that the signing ceremony should be kept low key, and not be a public spectacle; the signing of the treaty was the beginning of the path to reconciliation, not the e
nd, and it had been agreed that a celebratory event would not have been appropriate at that stage. Despite having worked on and predominantly lived on the GPS space station for the last four years, as the UEC’s Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation, Maria had chosen to stand with the UEC for the ceremony, in UEC uniform, replete with her newly-awarded Commander’s rank insignia. To the other side of Archer was First Minister Kuba, the operational manager of government business, and behind him, relegated to a subordinate position, was Major James Kurren, accompanied by two square-built soldiers from his unit. Once, Kurren had been Archer’s most trusted military adviser and the head of his personal security, but Kurren’s fierce opposition to the reconciliation process had cost him his status, and nearly his rank. But against Maria’s council, Archer had wanted him present, as a mark of respect for his prior record, and also in honor of his brother, Commander Chris Kurren - Maria’s former partner. Maria had been forced to leave Chris Kurren on the planet’s surface during the Planetsider mission five years ago; an action that she knew would lead to his death. But Maria always knew that death would be a mercy, compared to the alternative, which was to succumb to the effects of genetic deformation due to the intense radiation on the surface; what the planetsiders called ‘the Maddening’.

  Major Kurren had hated Maria for this, and would make cruel and spiteful references to her abandonment whenever they met, which, to Maria’s relief, became ever more infrequent, due to his sidelined position. Yet, despite Kurren’s vocal disapproval of her position, and against everyone’s expectations, Archer had developed a deep mutual trust with Maria. It was what had kick-started Archer’s initial talks with Diana and GPS, and it was what, over a long and hard-fought four years of negotiations, had led them to this day; the moment when, finally, the war was to reach its end. It was ironic, Maria thought, that of all the recommendations that Maria had given to Archer over this period, it would be her advice to exclude Kurren from the proceedings that he would choose to ignore. And it had cost him his life.