Puppis Star System
10th December 2206
Loi was overseeing Strikeback’s warship portal deployment when the call from Eldlund came through. He sighed at his friend’s timing, but couldn’t help the short smile at what it meant.
‘We’re ready,’ Eldlund said. ‘The turtles have reached the end of the lakebed.’
‘I’m on my way.’ Loi cancelled his secure channel to the station’s G8Turing, which was controlling the deployment, and the immersive display encircling his chair slid away like wind-torn mist. He was sitting on one of three couch-chairs in a small hexagonal chamber, its only illumination coming from a display bubble in the middle, projecting a million-kilometre-wide globe of space, with Earth nestled at the centre. Tiny amber icons glided around the besieged planet like a cloud of fireflies – each one an Olyix ship, with the Salvation of Life a malign red blemish at L3, directly opposite the moon. The arkship had flown there after the invasion began, settling into a stable parking orbit where it received the transport ships bringing up the newly cocooned. Two hundred thousand kilometres further out, green icons were slowly drifting into position, as yet undetected by the Olyix.
When its primary base on the moon was destroyed by Olyix Deliverance ships, Alpha Defence had dispersed to a series of secondary locations. The secure station in the Puppis system was designated as the operations centre for the Strikeback operation’s forward positioning office. It was logical; Puppis was where a great many industrial systems were based, originally in expectation of the planet’s terraforming project. They’d all been taken over for the exodus habitat project – a major component of which were the new expansion portals that Connexion scientists had developed from the Olyix machines captured during an engagement in London. Unlike the old fixed-size portals that had to thread up, these could now enlarge themselves. There were limits, of course; a ten-centimetre-diameter portal couldn’t be expanded up to a hundred metres. But a fifty-metre portal could certainly increase to half a kilometre. The latest generation currently under development were designed to expand out to six kilometres – large enough for a habitat to pass through.
As the rebuilding phase of the Avenging Heretic project had wound down, Loi had moved on to the deployment team, who supervised the covert positioning of Strikeback’s expansion portals above Earth. This stage wasn’t dangerous or difficult, just overseeing the G8Turing that handled the flight vectors. And as an added benefit, it was what his mother assumed he’d be doing during the Strikeback itself. Having her in the Puppis system working on the exodus had proved both a blessing and a bit of a nightmare. She got to see him regularly, which helped put her mind at rest – and it played into the story that he was still working as Yuri’s assistant (which was partially true). Even though she was one of the leading figures in managing the exodus habitat manufacturing programme, and had frequent Strikeback briefings, the Avenging Heretic was classified way above her pay grade. Loi was thankful about that – because if she ever discovered what his actual mission was during Strikeback, there would be hell to pay.
He stepped through the portal into the Knockdown team’s ultra-secure office. Given it was the most critical aspect of Strikeback, only five people were allowed access. It was almost identical to the room he’d just left, except there was only Eldlund sitting in a chair in front of the display bubble. The projection here was bleak – a flat, desolate landscape smothered in grainy mist and illuminated from above by bright flickering light.
‘Looking good,’ Eldlund said, smiling brightly at Loi.
‘Uh, yes. Thank you. You, too,’ Loi replied. ‘Did you come here straight from a party?’ His friend was wearing a flowing dress of crushed purple velvet with an exceptionally long split up the side of hir skirt. He wondered briefly who the lucky date was.
Eldlund laughed. ‘You’re very sweet. So, ah, how’s Gwendoline?’
‘She’s okay. Busy. Like all of us.’
Eldlund’s interest in Loi’s mother was something Loi couldn’t quite get his head around. Sure, she was lovely, but she was his mother. He and Eldlund had become close over the last two years, which made what he assumed was a crush even harder to deal with.
‘Not quite like us,’ Eldlund teased. ‘Given where we’re heading . . .’
‘Yeah, but she’s not to know. She’d go into a massive panic, and I couldn’t take that.’
‘Absolutely. The stress is getting to me, too.’
‘Hey, we’ll be fine. Our suits are the best, and I’ve got your back. Always, okay?’
‘I know. Reciprocated, by the way.’ Hir face became sober. ‘Our intruders are out of Gilbert Bay.’
Loi scanned the bubble as his altme pulled data from the Knockdown network. At this stage of the mission, their task was to infiltrate portals into the area around Salt Lake City, where Olyix ships were landing in readiness for the city’s shield collapsing. It wasn’t easy to get physically close – not with the kind of sensor technology the Olyix boasted. The bioborgs Kandara had attempted to use as distractions on her failed mission to McDivitt habitat had shown they could detect fake creatures, so the Knockdown team had decided on a biological approach for their intruders.
With eight-letter DNA incorporated in the design, the Knockdown intruders resembled turtles. Measuring forty centimetres long, they’d been grown in vats over three months. But instead of the slow, stumpy legs that the genuine genus possessed, these had long, sinuous limbs that moved like snakes, making them relatively fast. The shell had a hide of chameleon cells, allowing them to blend into the landscape. Loi wasn’t entirely sure that was going to be needed given the environment they operated in, but the biologists had been on a roll, so it passed review unchallenged. Their internal organs were more or less standard, although they could handle climates
