Chapter 12

Dave

Dave was walking as fast as he could. He figured it would take him approximately fifteen more minutes to get to the car and then a few minutes to drive back to the Frost Observatory. Novak´s message had been ominous, and he wondered if it could be as bad as it had sounded. Surely, the Moon people wouldn´t risk everything so soon after their conquest of the North—or would they?

The view from these hills was spectacular, and even in the midst of this, he didn´t miss out. He could see the city in the distance and the farmlands and a few closed-off military areas in between. He didn´t know what the military areas contained. He had seen armored vehicles exiting one of the compounds a few weeks back, but that was all. As far as he knew, there was no activity. He figured they were just storage facilities or something.

He tried running, but the darkness was so thick that he risked stumbling and falling. So he walked instead, keeping a brisk pace.

Suddenly, a flash of light grabbed his attention. It came from one of the military areas, and was followed by several smaller flashes coming from the same place. He immediately realized it must have something to do with Novak´s message.

Something like this would only be the beginning, but how far would it go? It wasn´t as if Buchanan and the Covenant hadn´t come to blows before, but it had never come to all-out war. Skirmishes, raids, and border violations had all fizzled out eventually. Perhaps this was such an instance, but it was deep within Buchanan. It wasn’t some excursion across the Rift, but an intervention almost all the way into the city of Buchanan. He had to get back to the Frost Observatory. Somebody there would know what to do. He picked up his pace.

They are coming, he thought. My God, they are really coming.

 

 

Evan

Evan was listening to the reports as they came in. So far, everything was going smoothly, but it was a complicated plan. All of it was to rid the Moon people of the fear and collective anxiety that had hampered their development for so long. The Moon people would rule benevolently once that fear was eliminated, and they could then build the utopian society they dreamed of.

"Sir, the Luna Brigade has incapacitated all strategic assets. At 03.30 hours, Buchanan missile control was attacked, and the facility was under our control within thirty minutes. All enemy personnel were disposed of and all systems are down," Strategos Jenssen reported. He was, as usual, with his staff instead of at Strategos Command, so he reported via video-link.

"How much time do we have?" Evan asked.

"We are currently holding the facility although we have already begun withdrawing our teams in order to have them ready for secondary targets. The facility will be blown up about twenty minutes from now."

"So the facility will be completely destroyed, and their key personnel are already dead?"

"Yes, sir. They will circumvent all of this eventually, but they will still lack personnel resources with the necessary competence. Even if we don´t account for personnel, it will take them days to gain control of even a single missile."

"Good. What´s the status of our cyber operations?"

"Sir, there are cyber attacks happening as we speak. A lot of it has been going on for weeks and months in preparation for this. Our attacks are striking all over their systems: power supply, communications, air traffic control. We haven´t managed to take out everything, but I´d say 60 percent of their power supply and 80 percent of comms systems are down. We took out all air traffic control thirty minutes ago, but they have some pretty good hackers and managed to wrangle it back. They know we are in their systems, so I wouldn´t expect much more than what we’ve already achieved, sir."

"I see," Evan said. Eighty percent of comms down would definitely hamper their abilities, and for a small, highly specialized military like Buchanan´s, it would matter much more than if it were the other way around.

"Anything else, Strategos?" he asked.

"We have several special teams in place deep within enemy territory. None have been discovered yet. The four teams in the city are lying low and waiting for the order. Everything is scouted and planned. All they need is the order." Evan nodded thoughtfully. If the attack on Buchanan missile control and the cyber attack weren´t enough, this strike would definitely make it clear to anyone in doubt that they were indeed at war.

"It’s time. Go for it, Strategos Jenssen. You have the order to take out Buchanan military high command."

 

 

Dave

It was approaching 05.00 hours when Dave finally entered his office. The first thing he noticed as he slumped into his chair was that the computer had been switched off. It seemed the power was down, as the hallways had been lit by emergency lighting only, but that didn´t worry him. The computers ran on a different grid altogether in order to protect their data from outages, lightning strikes, or other things that could cause major emergencies. He flipped the ON switch and waited. It normally took a couple of seconds before the computer booted up.

Nothing. The computer was as good as dead. He tried several times to get it back to life, but nothing happened. He pressed the comms button on his desk and was about to tell the AI to put him through to tech support, but the comms were down as well. No reaction at all.

A sudden panic overtook him, and he picked up his small backpack, rummaging through it until he found what he wanted. He picked up the black box and put his finger to its side. It immediately gave off a faint blue light, and Dave exhaled. At least the box was unharmed, even if it contained no messages from Mark Novak.

He had to speak to someone to figure out what was happening and to tell someone what he had seen. But how? There had to be someone around. He remembered then that Dr. Sims had once told him that she had a reserve system in place designed to remain online even if everything else failed.

Dave decided to go straight to her office. He´d figure something out, whether she was there or not.

 

 

Tina

Tina searched the starry sky without seeing anything, of course. Ramon was up there right now, probably docked with the ark. Shefania was furious, he had said, but Tina had learned there were certain triggers that could be pulled with those from Sanctuary. Shefania would refuse to interfere with the coming war, even if she could, due to what Tina so often—and not without contempt—referred to as Sanctuary´s pacifism.

But Tina knew Shefania would have a hard time refusing to help in other ways. The only thing that could present an obstacle was the fact that the ark was so precious and couldn’t be put at risk.

But Shefania was no stranger to risk.

Tina grinned. She had known Shefania for quite a few years now, and she sometimes suspected some of the Aurorans´ adventurism had rubbed off on her. Or maybe it was innate. After all, Shefania was the one who, on her own initiative, had come down to the planet to contact the small human settlement all those years ago. She cared deeply for the Aurorans, and perhaps some of that could be transferred to the Earthlings.

She kicked the dirt. Waiting made her nervous, but it was out of her hands. All she could do was trust that Ramon had inherited some of his mother´s persuasiveness and creativity and his father´s bravery, although there had never really been any doubt about that. She checked her tablet again, impatient to hear from Ramon. Still nothing.