-Joey Antonson-
-Planet of Triton, 12.30.1346-
Joey hated the helmets that the Advent troopers wore. Their faces were entirely covered by that white, expressionless mask. The two black slits for their eyes gave the unnerving impression that they were always looking directly at you, as if with one glance they could read your innermost thoughts and see exactly who and what you are.
Joey pulled his hood closer over his face, looking downwards as he walked past the two Advent soldiers standing on the street corner and trying to blend into the crowd. It was a busy hour at the market place and the best time for Joey to move around the city. The Advent occupiers had proven to have an uncanny ability in tracking down Resistance members when there were few people active in the city. Denzel had explained why to him: the Advent's psionic powers worked on a basis of "feeling" out the planes of spacetime, where separate consciousnesses could be identified upon that plane. It was far harder for a Resistance sympathizer to be found if there were more people around-when there were so many more diverging points in spacetime, the Advent would have a much more difficult time of pinpointing a singular entity.
It barely made sense to Joey, but he was not going to question it. He had seen public executions before. The Resistance had enough problems already besides having to worry about some Advent Psintegrat reading their mind.
Joey passed by another patrol, the Advent troopers not paying him any mind. Joey then slipped out of the flow of the crowd before taking a side alley away from the main boulevard. Walking through the filth-ridden alley, Joey took several turns as he moved through the jumbled mess of buildings. There were dozens of people out and about: children in ragged clothes running around, a couple overworked mothers hanging up laundry, more than a few thugs loitering and smoking in twisted alleys. It was one of many ghettos in the capital, and one of the areas where the Advent presence was least. Joey took another turn, the noises of the ghetto quieting behind him as he made his way down another narrow street. Eventually he came to a slightly rusted metal door, obscured from view by a dumpster. He glanced over his shoulder out of reflex, before knocking on the door.
Three light knocks, pause, one knock, pause, three more light ones. It was a signal that he was not being tracked.
After a moment, the door opened outwards and Joey quickly entered, shutting it behind him.
"Thanks Hans," said Joey.
Hans, the door guard, grunted as he reset the locking mechanisms on the door. "Rachel and the others are already here. You're the only one they're waiting on."
Joey nodded. He passed through the first few rooms of the building, mumbling a greeting to the two Resistance members in the kitchen. His footsteps were softened by rugs and carpets that had been set out over the concrete floor as he made his way to the meeting room.
The decrepit building that housed this Resistance cell was one of the many constructions that came about during the early years of colonization, before the planetary government began to implement more detailed urbanization plans. These ghettos which speckled the city had been trouble spots for crime over the years as gangs had made their nests in the labyrinthine building complexes. There had always been talk from Triton's government of bulldozing over the ghettos to improve the image of Triton's urban population. It was ironic that now, after the Advent had conquered the planet, these were the areas safest for the scattered Resistance to hide.
Joey had been lucky. Once a fighter pilot in Triton's planetary defense force, he had managed to link with a group of local militia after crash landing. At some point in the chaotic weeks that followed, Joey met Rachel and Denzel, who had begun organizing a resistance movement the day that the Advent had begun occupying the planet. They took refuge in the urban sprawl of Triton's capital, and for the past six months had spent their time by creating a complex network of cells, informants, and spies that now spread across the planet. The Advent had superior technology and their psionic powers, but only were spending a token effort in trying to spread belief and support of the Unity's culture among the population. As a result, unrest was spreading, especially in city centers. The Resistance's main effort was in spreading and harnessing that unrest.
Joey opened the door to the meeting room. Denzel was seated at the head of the table, thin wire glasses perched on the tip of his nose. Adrian, Erica, Marc, Gustav, Janila—Joey ran his eyes over the people present in the room. It seemed as if every high-ranking member of the Resistance in the capital were here. Leaning against the wall at the far side of the room, Rachel, leather-clad arms crossed, nodded subtly at Joey's entrance.
Marc began, "You're pretty late, Joey. What was the hold-up?"
"There was a Psintegrat checking people at the metro station, so I decided to play it safe and hoof it on foot."
"Pretty risky," said Marc with a tone of disdain, "the patrols could have picked you up."
Joey shrugged, "I'd rather take that risk than go through a checkpoint manned by a Psintegrat." You arrogant ass. Joey sighed inwardly. Some things never change.
"Whatever the case," interrupted Denzel, "we're all here now. Now if you two are quite finished, it's time for me to tell you guys why I asked all of us to meet."
Eyes turned towards the de facto leader of the Resistance. Denzel readjusted his glasses before sliding a holographic projector to the middle of the table. He clicked on a remote, activating the projector and bathing the room in a blue light. It was an amazing map, showing a three dimensional view of the capital city, including the intricate subways and main sewers which ran underground.
"My god, Denzel," said Erica, "how the hell did you get your hands on this? This is something only government officials could access."
"The Triton planetary government no longer exists," deadpanned Denzel, "You can thank the Advent for that. I managed to steal several terabytes of data from government servers in the chaotic days after the Advent invaded. This map was protected by an encryption key and I just recently managed to unlock it."
He pressed another button, splitting the map of the city into various sectors and highlighting one. "This is the waterfront district. Marc, what's the status of our cells in that area?" Every person in the room, aside from Rachel, Denzel, and Joey, was in charge of the Resistance organizations in the separate districts of the capital city.
Marc leaned back in his chair, "The waterfront is one hundred percent a-okay. The Advent haven't caught a single Resistance member for months, and neither have they picked up on the weapons that we've been distributing. I'd estimate that about fifty or sixty percent of the population supports us in some way—whether it's giving supplies or intelligence. We've even begun spreading the word by mouth in the communal kitchens, considering as the Advent hardly ever watch those places."
"That's very good news," said Denzel, "but also very dangerous. We can't afford to blow our presence in the area by getting too complacent. How soon do you think will your people be ready to begin the operation?"
"Two, three weeks, maybe," said Marc, "two, definitely, if distributions go on schedule."
"We're on a similar time estimate," said Adrian. He and Erica were in charge of operations in the western industrial districts. Denzel highlighted the relevant part of the map. "The Resistance in the industrial district hasn't been able to spread as far, but we're in touch with the union leaders of the factories. We've been using their organizations to help with distributions and training."
Erica interrupted, "There isn't enough equipment to go around, though. If we decide to make our move as planned, we'll need a significant distraction if we want a chance of taking out the Advent guard stations." She brushed a lock of hair out of her face as she gestured to the map, noting the locations of guard depots in the industrial district.
"Riot," said Joey.
The room swiveled towards him.
Joey hesitated for a second, before continuing, "We don't have enough weapons to arm the whole city, as we only have what we scavenged from militia armories. Until we seize control of some heavy weapons, the best we can do is give the Advent a sizable distraction to provide cover for our armed squads."
"And a riot...the Advent Psionics would be too concerned about the enflamed emotions, too concerned to pay attention to a few divergences," said Denzel, nodding thoughtfully.
"Exactly. If we keep that element of surprise, we could seize the guard depots and then move swiftly to take control of the Spaceport before the Psintegrats can respond." The Spaceport was located in the center of the capital city. Taking control of it meant capturing the AA and AS batteries there, cutting off Advent reinforcements.
"I have an issue with this," said Marc. "It's a great distraction, for sure, but what if the Advent respond violently to the riots? If a crowd gets gunned down and the rest of the city loses their nerve, we might ruin the whole damn operation."
"It's not like we have many other options," Joey retorted, "and we should take the risk. We're in the business of liberating our planet, so we're going to have to accept some casualties."
Marc stood up, "And who are you to begin dictating what we should or should not do? Maybe being a pilot, you are more accustomed to taking reckless actions. But the militia sure don't put the lives of innocent folks on the line. You're too busy to realize how much of a sacrifice you're asking for."
Anger flared, and Joey's jaw tightened as he bit back, "The militia aren't the only ones who have lost people. My entire squadron was destroyed. I'm the last surviving starfighter pilot on this planet."
"Christ, you two, this isn't a competition. Can't we work together?" said Adrian, trying to get the meeting back on track.
Marc continued, ignoring Adrian, "Which begs the question, why is a pilot sitting in with the leadership of the Resistance? I still don't see why your 'expertise' is needed here."
"That's enough, both of you!" It was from Rachel, who up to this point had been quietly leaning against the wall. She was approaching the table now, her authority blanketing over the bickering. Both Joey and Marc shut up and slowly sat back down.
"I think," she began, "that the idea of orchestrating riots is a good one. So long as they don't get too out of hand until we've taken control of the guard depots, we can probably avoid a harsh Advent reprisal. It'll be extremely difficult to pull off, though."
Rachel turned to Janila, "I know there have been a couple demonstrations in the North Side in the past few months. Rioting there would be expected by the Advent, so they probably wouldn't suspect any organization to it. If you can begin devoting your time to orchestrating these distractions in your district, that can be the starting point of a chain reaction throughout the city." She addressed the rest of the group. "We'd only have one shot at this. Our plans for attacking the guard depots would be the same, but we'd have to get our timing down to the last second."
The members of the Resistance nodded their heads, although Marc still looked doubtful.
Gustav, who was in charge of the Resistance in the central districts, now spoke up, "Most of the Psintegrat in the capital are lodging in my district. They'd realize that a riot was orchestrated if we try organizing that many people so close to them."
"Then we'll leave your district for last," said Rachel, "And no riots. Just attack. Once the Advent have been distracted enough by city-wide demonstrations, we seize the guard stations in the other districts. And with that step done, we can have our armed squads in the central district begin operations. It'd be crucial in order to give my team time to capture the Spaceport." Rachel was going to be personally leading the strike team which would hit their main objective. The riskiest and most important job.
Denzel reached and turned off the holographic map. "That's just the basic outline of the coming operation. We'll go over all the details and hand out operation plans to each of you. I think we should take a break, and come back to address those issues in a little bit."
The room murmured their acknowledgement and began to filter out.
Joey was about to find himself a nice cup of coffee, preferably real coffee and not the synthetic crap, when Rachel addressed him, "Joey, if you could stay for a minute."
Stifling his disappointment, Joey turned around. Denzel was still seated at the head of the table and Rachel stood next to him.
They really were amazing in keeping the organization together, thought Joey. Denzel provided the analysis and logistics skills needed to build the Resistance and Rachel was the backbone, the iron bands which kept the whole group together. It was the combination of the two which gave Triton's Resistance a fledgling chance at beating their Advent occupiers.
"What's up?" asked Joey.
"Well, we figured we ought to tell you why we invited you to the meeting," said Denzel.
"Yeah, Marc can be ass, but he was right when he asked why you were a part of the planning committee," said Rachel, "Your input is great and all, but that's not the main purpose."
"So what is the main purpose?" Joey huffed. Was it too much to ask to be appreciated with a 'glad to have you on the team?'
"The question no one has really asked yet is what to do about the Advent cruisers orbiting Triton. Even if we take the Spaceport, the AS batteries can shoot down incoming vessels but do nothing against ships that are perfectly willing to bombard the planet from space."
"Additionally," added Denzel, "you know that we've been organizing the Resistance movements in other regions of Triton. The most crucial battle, yes, is here in the capital. But we have underground militia units all over the planet, ready to strike when we give the word. And our people out there have absolutely zero protection against orbital strikes."
Joey had wondered about the issue of the Advent's dominance in space, but always assumed that Rachel and Denzel had a plan for it. "Well, I don't know how much I can do about that. Even if you managed to get me in a gunship or a starfighter, I couldn't take on the dozen or so Advent ships out there in space."
"You won't have to," said Denzel. "We've been in contact with the TEC."
"What? Really?" Joey was astounded. Triton was way behind enemy lines at this point.
"Yes, this little Resistance of ours isn't working solo. We've been planning in conjunction with TEC navy command," said Denzel. "There are going to be uprisings all throughout Advent-occupied space, and the TEC is preparing for a simultaneous offensive to give those rebellions a chance in succeeding. There is a detachment from the 22nd Special Operations Fleet several phase jumps away, which will begin their attack on Triton once they receive news that we're in control of the Spaceport."
That was very interesting, but Joey's questions weren't answered, "Listen, I still have no idea how I fit into this."
"I was getting to that. The TEC is concerned about the orbital defense platforms that the Advent have built in Triton's gravity well. On one hand, the TEC isn't willing to risk a whole fleet in recapturing Triton. On the other, they're concerned that what ships that they are going to be sending won't be enough to destroy both the Advent vessels and the Beam Defenses out in space."
"Classic TEC, always running their cost-benefit calculations," remarked Joey. Rachel smirked.
Denzel continued, "In any case, we're going to have to do our part in helping the battle out there in space. Joey, you're the only one in the Resistance who can pilot starships and has experience with communications in military operations. When Rachel's team captures the spaceport, we're putting you in charge of the next phase."
Rachel picked up where Denzel had left off, "We have a couple other pilots, from civilian backgrounds. After we capture the spaceport, each pilot will fly a demolitions squad out. There are four Beam Defense platforms that the Advent have set up, so there will be four squads. Once they arrive, each squad will set explosives to destroy the defense platform, and high-tail it out of there. That should give the TEC the edge they need to be able to destroy the Advent cruisers, and prevent our movement on the ground from getting bombarded to hell and back."
"This sounds like something out of a bank heist film," said Joey slowly. He was trying not to think about being put in charge of that operation phase. "There's a very high chance that us pilots will get destroyed long before we can reach those platforms."
"Well, the ship we have in mind for you to pilot ought to even those odds. A little." Denzel added the last bit after a short pause. "We intercepted a manifest a few weeks back. These ships are in storage at the spaceport, just sitting there." He held up a photo. "Do you recognize them?"
Joey took a look. They were sleak gunships, looking almost like a starfighter despite being of a much larger size and having bulkier engines. Autocannons were slung on their wings. "Hellsfire T-80 Cosmic Transports. I thought only the TEC Marines used those?"
"Yeah, well it turns out there were a few in transit here on Triton. When the Advent attacked, they've been sitting and gathering dust ever since. Do you think they'll do?"
Joey was getting excited, like a child before Christmas. He'd never flown a Hellsfire before. "Denzel, you give me the chance to fly and I sure as hell will take it." He paused, feeling some uncertainty seep in. "But, uh, to be honest, I don't think I'm the right guy to be leading this part of the operation."
"Jo," said Rachel, "none of our other pilots lined up have flown in a combat situation before. You're the only one we have who could help train them for that."
Joey cleared his throat, "I mean, I've only been in combat once. And during that fight, my entire squadron got destroyed. I don't, really, I mean, I don't think I'm up to being the leader for this part."
"Let me put it this way, if you don't step up, more likely than not we're all going to get atomized by orbital bombardment. This whole uprising depends on timing and everything going off without a hitch. We need you to be communicating with the incoming TEC ships and to make sure that the demolition teams make it to their targets. So are you going to get your ass in gear, or do we have to put your self confidence in the kiddy car seat?" Rachel raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms.
Shit. "Alright, fine. I'll do it." Joey threw his hands up. "Just don't burn an effigy of me when it's my fault this whole thing goes bust."
"Chances are, we'll be burning for real if that becomes the case," chuckled Denzel without much humor. "But let's not go into this with that kind of mentality."
"Okay, so, what about the demolitions team? Do we have enough people with sufficient knowledge for that stuff?" asked Joey.
"Let us take care of that part," said Rachel, "you just handle the flying part. We'll put you into contact with the other pilots, and set up a discreet meeting time."
There was a knock on the door, and the three looked up. Erica poked her head in, "Hey Denzel, do you want to discuss the other details of the operation now?"
"Yeah, yeah, let's do that," said Denzel, "get everyone back here." He readjusted his glasses. "Joey, I don't think there's anything else pressing that we need to cover right now. If you want, you can head out. It might be easier to slip by the checkpoints during this time anyways."
Joey acknowledged this, standing up and began to exit the room. He stopped and turned back for a second, "So, about three weeks until we begin the operation?"
Denzel nodded. "Three weeks."
"Okay," said Joey. He left the room, heading through the building and to the door from which he had arrived. Hans was still standing guard at the door, and let him through.
As the steel door of the building closed shut behind him, Joey looked up at the sky, framed by the concrete and piping of the alleyway. It was a pale grey and it felt as if it was going to rain soon.
"I hope to God that we're ready by then," said Joey, to no one in particular. He then adjusted the hood of his sweatshirt and began to walk away. As his footsteps echoed on the narrow street of the ghetto and a gentle pattering of raindrops drizzled over him, Joseph Antonson, former Warrant Officer of the Triton planetary defense force, quickly blended back in with the urban sprawl, once more becoming a nameless resident of the city.
Codex Entry: Transcript of Advent Trooper Communications, 12.30.1346, Occupying Force on Planet of Triton
Location: Triton City Center, Main Boulevard
Trooper 1: Jiuro Moalis
Trooper 2: Theo Kenia
1: Can you actually see anything in this helmet?
2: No, not really.
1: Then why do we have to wear them?
2: Scares the hell out of the humans, I guess.
1: The helmets do look pretty cool from the outside.
2: Here, check it out.
[directed to passerby]
*Trooper 2 makes crackling noises with radio while staring directly at passerby*
1: Ha ha ha. That stuff never gets old.
2: That shriek of terror, though. Best part of this dumb job.
1: Classic, classic. I wish I could have seen the look on that guy's face though.
2: Oh…yeah.
1: I mean, not like we have to really worry about someone attacking us. The Traders assume that all of us have psionic powers.
2: Man, I wish.
1: It sucks. I'm not biologically compatible with the high end PsiTech stuff. No reading minds over here.
2: Guess that explains why you're stuck with this crummy job.
1: At least we get in contact with girls who aren't more powerful than we are.
2: Way to be sexist, dude.
1: No, no. I mean, it's hard to get some when the girl you're with can read your mind. It's pretty awkward when they figure out that you're not planning on calling them for a second date.
2: True.
1: Telekinesis can…have its uses though.
2: Never gone there. I wouldn't know.
1: Do you want to know?
2: No.
*silence*
1: [sigh]
2: What is it?
1: I really hate this helmet. I wish I could see something. Have I told you that?
2: Yes. About a minute ago.
1: Oh, all right then. Pardon me for trying to make friendly conversation.
2: I'm not paid enough to be nice to you.
1: Fine. [pause] Want to play 'I Spy'?
2: Okay, sure.
1: I spy…something dark.
2: The inside of your helmet.
1: You got it!
2: [sigh] I hate my job.
A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone still reading and following this story! I wanted to explore the game mechanic of uprisings which happen when an alien culture is strong enough on the planet, and this was the result. These characters and Joey's POV will probably appear more often in the future, as well.
School year is winding down, and it's kind of bittersweet in these last few weeks of my high school career. A couple months of summer and then I'll be off to college! While that's exciting and all, I'll miss seeing my classmates and friends. It feels like the end of an era for me.
