Emilja gave him a startled look. ‘Are we ready for Strikeback?’
‘No. It’s scheduled for six months’ time: June of next year. But we still won’t be ready then – or not ready in a sense that I can guarantee success. Right now we have built up sufficient attack ships and Calmissiles to hit the Salvation of Life hard enough to force it back down the wormhole. What we don’t have yet is the ability to hit the current crop of city siege ships as well.’
‘Do we need to?’ Ainsley III asked.
‘It’s part of the plan,’ Yuri said reasonably.
‘Not really,’ Danuta countered. ‘It’s a hugely desirable part of the plan, sure, but the core is to get you inside the Olyix enclave. Everything else is secondary to that objective.’
‘Our Trojan mission, and the exodus habitats,’ Yuri said. ‘Both parts have to work for the plan to have any meaning. And frankly, we’re just the cherry on the cake.’
‘What will happen with the cities if we do force the Salvation to retreat some time in the next week?’ Kandara queried. ‘There must be a contingency plan.’
‘Not a plan specifically,’ Johnston said. ‘More a calculation. If we do hit the Salvation of Life hard enough – and in the right way – we’re hopeful the Deliverance ships on Earth will launch and try to get into the wormhole before the Olyix close it behind them. For any that are left, we use every warship we have to chase them all the way to hell. Any that don’t leave . . . Well, that means they’re an easy target.’
‘You’ll let nukes off in Earth’s atmosphere? Seriously?’
‘What’s left of Earth’s atmosphere, sure, if that’s what it takes to end the Olyix attack. They’ve ruined our world. Even if we started to re-terraform it tomorrow, it would take millennia to recover just to the stage where we could start to regenerate the biosphere. And probably longer than that for the polar ice cap to re-form. As for glaciers, that’s for our great-great-great-grandchildren.’
‘I don’t think the five of us can really concern ourselves with Earth any more,’ Yuri said. ‘What happens to Earth and the exodus habitats after we leave is what happens. We just need to concentrate on getting our part right.’
‘That’s brutal,’ Callum protested.
‘Eighty-three cities have fallen since the siege started, thanks to screw-ups, crap maintenance and sabotage,’ Yuri replied. ‘That’s practically one a week. Our life is brutal now, and it’s never going to get better – not for us. You need to face that.’
‘Yeah, fuck you, too, pal. We only get one shot at this, so it has to be right. No, it has to be perfection. You were on that test flight. We were mediocre at best.’
‘But it worked,’ Kandara said. ‘We flew. First time out! The equipment works, we worked. So the rest of us aren’t as good as Jessika when it comes to piloting, but we sure as hell function as a team. And precision piloting isn’t half as critical as the rest of the mission coming together.’
‘Okay,’ Emilja said. ‘Do any of the five of you have a substantial doubt that you can get into the Salvation of Life if we initiate Strikeback?’
If he was being honest with himself, Callum had to admit his doubts were all down to nerves. There were so many interlocking factors, every one of which had to play out perfectly, and the stakes were insane. But . . . ‘Yeah, I think we can do it.’ He looked around at Loi and Eldlund. ‘What about you two? Your role is pretty damn essential.’
‘Find us an Olyix transport ship in the right place, and we’ll be fine,’ Loi said.
‘General?’ Ainsley III asked.
‘The Olyix transport ships are always on the move. But we can track them. If one is on course for a suitable position, we’ll know.’
‘Any possibilities coming up?’
‘Yes. Unfortunately. Two of the Salt Lake City shield generators are losing efficiency; it looks like minor component burnout. They all have multiple redundancy built in, of course, but the tolerances are getting close to redline levels.’
‘Surely that’s a simple replacement issue?’ Danuta said.
‘Maybe. But the fact that two generators are glitching at the same time is suspicious. We have replacement generators scheduled, but we’re also worried about Paris and London.’
‘More sabotage?’
‘Yes,’ Soćko said. ‘Nikolaj’s team has infiltrated a shield generator compound in London; they launched creeperdrones, which have chewed their way into the generator auxiliary systems. In Paris, Edouard’s people have almost penetrated the perimeter to the power supply portal from New Washington. So we can expect a concentration of transport ships outside those three cities over the next few days.’
‘For Christ’s sake,’ Danuta protested. ‘If we know about the sabotage teams, we need to exterminate them. And I still can’t believe anyone is dumb or desperate enough to work for an Olyix agent.’
‘This is the problem we’ve faced right from the start,’ Alik said. ‘We can’t let the Olyix know we’re plugged into the Salvation of Life’s onemind. And if we start taking out their operatives on Earth, they’ll realize quickly enough.’
‘Yeah, yeah, but people helping them? That’s fucking disgusting.’
‘Most of the sabotage is carried out by drones and synth creatures,’ Yuri said. ‘The dark market suppliers don’t realize what their products are being used for.’
‘I still think we should take them out. We know all of them by now, don’t we? So what if the onemind realizes?’
‘It might affect our Trojan flight,’ Jessika said. ‘We need to be able to fool the onemind about the identity of the Avenging Heretic. We cannot risk it discovering that we can perceive its thoughtstream, and – by implication – deceive it.’
‘But we can’t let more cities fall! Dammit, Berlin was bad. Nobody expected that. The people trapped under those shields need some good news.’
‘We’re looking for other angles to come at the Olyix agents,’ Alik said. ‘If there’s another way, we’ll find it.’
‘The Strikeback will be the greatest news possible,’ Emilja said.
‘For a while,’ Ainsley III observed. ‘It’ll take a few years to
