More than thirty miles of Planet were burning? Curse the war!

Deirdre surveyed the landscape with a hopeless look. The Spartan threat in the skies was ended, and so now her shuttles had landed on a rocky hill in the wilderness between Bunker 118 and New Glasgow.

Her warriors had unloaded, and were now attempting to douse the fire. It was a near-impossible task. The heat was tremendous, and Deirdre could feel the unbearable heat beginning to curl the hairs on her skin.

Aircraft from above released thousands of gallons of water onto the fire, in a vain attempt to hold the voracious advance. White steam filled the sky, mixing with the acrid black smoke.

Deirdre found it difficult to breathe, and moved further back. It was foolish, and she knew it, to be down here. Her generals had protested, her pilots had protested. Everybody had protested. However, she could not, she could never, leave Planet to burn.

Let Santiago laugh! Let the Gaian faction be ridiculed, all that mattered was Planet.and its survival.

Even now, she could sense the pain of the sentient consciousness. It pounded through her head, shrieking with the piercing strength of a thousand bells clashing all at once.

we burn, earthdeirdre. Great pain we are in.

Deirdre grunted as the telepathic link was forced, a clumsy hand grasping at her mind. She fell to the floor, and lay there as the words poured through her. Finally, when it had passed, she forced herself to stand.

"Thanks Planet, tell me something I don't know."

Diehl turned to her, his face covered in the soot and ash from the inferno.

"Lady?"

Deirdre sighed. "Nothing, Diehl. I was talking to myself."

Zakharov walked towards Deirdre. "Lady, I must protest. The Council has given you command of this mission, and I cannot dispute that, but why are we out here, sacrificing lives, and resources, for an area of land which we do not need, or have any intention of using? I say let the fire burn itself out, and move on with the attack."

Deirdre snapped. "How long do you think it will take for a fire of this size to burn itself out, Provost? By the time it has, it will reach the survivors in new Glasgow, ending any attempts at rebuilding. That is beside the point, however. No area of Planet is more important than another, just because humans live in one area. Planet is all special, and we only live here by grace of Planet."

Zakharov nodded. "We risk far too much though, my lady. Already many of our men our lost in the blaze. What else can we do? It has been a dry spate of weather, and the xenofungus is going up like kindling. Look."

Deirdre didn't want to look. Destruction had, recently, begun to look beautiful to her. That feeling inside her. Was it wrong? Was it a feeling that butchers like Santiago experienced? Part of Deirdre wanted to squash the feelings in an instant, but another part knew that was impossible. Taking a breath, she looked once again.

It was beautiful, in an awe-inspiring and malevolent way. Lurid, orange flames rising into the sky. It was like a strange, artificial hell, unimagined by any algorithms within the workings of computers. No decision- making nodes could ever make enough calculations to produce such an awful blaze.

The xenofungus must provide much more fuel that ordinary foliage, thought Deirdre. At least that was the only explanation she could find. Her eyes hurt from looking at the brightness, dazzling and shifting. Reds, oranges, even pinks and purples. It was real fire. She screamed. Why did she find this beautiful? It was war!

"It is burning! It is not beautiful! Planet, pity me, I have fallen from the Creed!"

Her words tore from her throat, and she fell to the floor once again, sobbing uncontrollably. Diehl looked at her, and fell to his knees beside her. His head came level with hers.

"Lady, you must stand."

Deirdre barely understood the words.

"I- I- I have- I am not, worthy anymore. By Planet, Diehl. None of this should be beautiful, but why is it that I find it so? What is war doing to me! I am a pacifist! I am not meant to be out here! Is there no consistency anymore in this world?" She screamed at the top of her voice. "I just want peace, damn it! Why can't I just have fucking peace?"

She fell into quiet weeping, and Diehl held her close to him.

"You must not despair. Peace will follow, lady. It must do. Do not think overlong on this, war is a necessity at the moment, but soon, soon, I promise you, peace will come."

Deirdre looked into his eyes. Suddenly, she felt dead. Cold. Empty.

"Peace is dead, Diehl. War. Whenever war becomes the only option, peace is lost forever. Why did I let myself get dragged into this?"

Diehl seemed almost angry. "Did our people die for nothing then, Deirdre? You belittle the sacrifice they made to keep the peace of Planet?"

Deirdre was anguished. "I don't know, Diehl! Planet help me, I don't know. Why do we have to fight? We harmed no one, yet the people on this planet make the same mistakes as on Earth. War. It comes down to that all the time. Leaders ignored, and will forever ignore peace."

Diehl shook his head. "No, lady. There are good people, and people who respect the need for peace."

Deirdre screamed. "They are not enough! What are we, pebbles against a tide? Grass against the wind? We are pacifists, and when the mighty engines of war tramp towards us, we must bow, scrap, and flee. We have no place in war."

Diehl cursed. "Stop it, lady. We have a place not only to keep the peace, but to protect Planet. This time, words have failed us. Santiago will never care for Planet, and now without the restraints of the Council, she can plunder the resources mercilessly. Call it vengeance, call it whatever you will, but I deem this simple protection of Planet. We are environmentalists as well as pacifists, lady. The two," he said with a slight grin. "Are quite different."

Deirdre shook her head. "I have been a fool, weeping and sobbing. Thank you, Commander. I am compose, and walk once more with Planet."

Diehl bowed his head. "Planet will nurture her child."

Deirdre smiled, and then looked once more at the fire. It was beautiful, her now clear thoughts agreed, but it is an evil beauty. A beauty generated by hatred, lust and vengeance. It is not the subtle beauty of the gardens, nor the wild, tempestuous beauty of Planet. It is the seductive beauty of temptation, a temptation to fall into war. Deirdre stood, and laughed, her heart suddenly light.

Lady Deirdre of the Gaians had survived the temptations of the Devil, as Miriam would put it. Deirdre wouldn't put it that way. Now she knew that she walked with Planet, and that her soul was still hers.



All day the army laboured, dousing the fire, dousing the fire, dousing the fire. It would have been boring, the intense continuity of the cycle, if it hadn't been for the gnawing doubt that the fire would ever be sated. The Gaians were committed to preventing this scar that cut into Planet from spreading, and their university allies were happy enough to help them.

When Deirdre saw her aircraft dropping ice from the planes, then she knew true beauty. Cascading diamond sparkles, more like dust reflected both the clean light of the two suns, and the dirty, smoky glimmering of the fire.

It was beauty, Deirdre thought, as the waters fell onto the fire, and it hissed. There was nothing better in the world. The hiss seemed to be a release of tension, a loud sigh from Planet itself. Or maybe even a murmur of thanks.

Whatever the hiss meant, Deirdre smiled. The fire had been stopped, her forces were safe, and now they were ready to continue their campaign against Santiago. She no longer had any doubts. This was a necessary war. A war would end the pain to Planet. A war would ensure her factions survival. Searching for the word, she could have smiled. Miriam's faction offered surprising parallels between her own. This war was a righteous war, and Planet's vengeance would be swift, final, absolute, and complete. And nobody would evade it. Santiago was on her way to the grave.