The Moon

Lunar Base Prime

T-Minus 2 days to Willis’s Impact

Samaira rode atop Chandrali down one of Lunar Prime’s many hallways. The halls were all identical: shining gray floors and sleeks white walls, triangular windows of reinforced transparent alloy, and soft lighting. A red line that ran the length of both sides of the hallway identified the current corridor as the West hall, or Primary Hall 4. The other three primary hallways had similar lines in blue, green, and orange. It reminded Samaira a bit of a subway. There were even transports that could carry one more quickly throughout the base and its many branching outposts and secondary domes.

Chandrali was decked out in her latest and most powerful armor: gleaming platinum with blue undertones that included a centurion-esque helmet and interlocking plates along her back and chest and legs. Samaira herself had made it, infused the purest metals she could buy from the RAC store and infused them with as much aetheric energy as she could muster and as many warding runes of defense as the metal could hold without flying apart.

Her big cat loped down the miles-long hallway, past junctions and tram stations, toward the central dome and the Deluxe Mori Cannon. Chandrali was far faster than any tram, and Samaira preferred the organic, liquid movement of the cat to the soulless linearity of the tram. She’d flown her in her Shooting Star in favor of the slightly faster ships from Gary’s factory.

As Samaira had leveled up, she’d noticed her growing distaste for machines and all things mechanical with every skill point she spent. There was something unsavory about them, unnatural in a way she couldn’t pinpoint. It wasn’t all technology or modern advancements, just the really big, recent stuff that came from the factories in China or Gary’s Antarctic facility.

The Deluxe Mori Cannon, or DMC as many were referring to it, unsettled her the most. She could feel its deadly energies humming at all hours, shackled by technological manacles. She was glad they had it pointed at Willis, but she wondered how long it would stay that way. Best case scenario, the DMC obliterated Willis, and a huge chunk of the asteroid crashed onto Lunar Prime.

After she and all the other staff had evacuated, naturally. She didn’t want anyone to die, she just wanted the blight on the moon gone.

But the genie’s out of the bottle now. Even if it’s destroyed, somebody will just make another, or something even worse, Samaira thought as Chandrali slowed her easy, distance-devouring lope to an easy trot. The big cat padded softly to a pair of huge doors that led into the central atrium of Dome 1. They opened with a quiet hiss to allow Samaira and Chandrali through.

Dome 1 was larger than the largest sports stadium ever created by a wide margin. It stretched up and out, mostly empty in the middle, but the edges were occupied by tiered walkways. Samaira had the impression of a perfectly circular ribcage. The rhythmic pulsing of the DMC’s power cells did little to dissuade her of the notion.

The back end of the DMC took up the far wall, measured over twenty stories tall, and was probably the smallest section of the weapon. The rest of it extended out over the moon, into the darkness of space. Several display and status screens and vast arrays of control panels and readouts were arranged at the base of the cannon. Several of the displays were centered on Willis, with various other screens showing speed, a countdown to arrival, and projected strength of the target.

Li Qiu sat in a chair amid the screens, her gray cloak draped over the arms, her powerful rifle at her her side. She glanced behind her as Samaira’s shoes clicked on the surface of the polished floor as she dismounted Chandrali.

“The proximity alarm went off,” Samaira said as she approached Li Qiu. The Chinese host turned in her chair as she gestured to a nearby screen.

A giant mecha, looking very much worse-for-wear with partially melted armor, a missing leg, multiple blast marks and punctures, was flying toward Lunar Prime with a sputtering, weak jet.

“Galtero!” Samaira said. It had been almost a full day since they’d heard anything but static and broken messages from any of the four hosts and Cooper at the outer defensive line. While there were a number of hosts who could fight in space, not many of them could venture too far out without a need to return to Earth to rest or replenish their energy.

Samaira’s stomach sank as she saw only Galtero on the screen. No Cooper, no Brody, and neither of the European hosts who had gone out as well.

“Message incoming,” Li Qiu said, but didn’t reach for her menu comms, but those of Lunar Prime. A flickering image of an exhausted young Brazilian man appeared on-screen.

“—co——bre——ooper——agai——” Galtero said in bursts of static. He was still hundreds of miles away, and whatever broadcasting equipment he was using on his mecha had obviously been just as damaged as the rest of it.

“I’m deploying some drones to act as an escort. Why isn’t he using his menu comms?” Li Qiu asked.

“Well it wasn’t working when Willis was within a certain range,” Samaira said. “Maybe he isn’t sure how far he’s gotten. His navigation on his mecha could be fouled up too,” Samaira said and raised her own menu comms window and tapped Galtero’s name. His face popped right up. It burst into a huge but weary smile upon seeing Samaira.

“Captain Upadhyay!” Galtero said. “Thank god my menu comms are working again. Can you hear me okay?”

“Yes, we hear you fine. What happened? Where are Brody and Cooper and the European hosts?” Samaira asked. Galtero’s face twisted and Samaira caught movement behind him. What she had taken to be a piece of gray bulkhead shifted and revealed itself to be the curled up form of Brody the shark.

“Coop’s gone,” Brody said. “Fuckers erased part of his memory or somethin’. Couldn’t work his suit and they tore into him. Fuckin’ bastards.”

“They what?” Samaira asked. Galtero explained how the asteroid had shot a beam of strange color and then Cooper had just…

“Lost his skills,” Galtero finished. “I know he didn’t have skills like hosts, but I think the idea is the same. Everything he knew about operating that power armor, it was gone in a second.”

“God,” Samaira said. Li Qiu swore in Mandarin.

“My navigation systems are toast. I wasn’t sure how close I was to Earth. The aliens chased me for hours, and Brody had to take out an entire wave by himself once my shields went down for good. He’s exhausted and I’m tapped out as well,” Galtero continued.

“We’ve sent drones out to you to escort you to the nearest hangar,” Li Qiu said. “They’ll reach you in less than ten minutes. And there’s nothing on the scanners.”

“Careful trusting them too much. They’ve got impressive cloaks. Have the European hosts from the outer line shown up?” Galtero asked.

“No, you’re the first news we’ve had about anything. I don’t suppose you saw any sign of Anya? Or Renn?” Samaira asked.

“Nothing. I’m sorry,” Galtero replied.

“It’s fine,” Samaira said as she took a breath. “Thank you, Galtero. I’m glad you and Brody made it back. I’ll make sure some medical droids are there to meet you and Brody.”

Galtero gave them an thankful but tired nod and closed his comm window.

“How long until that damn thing is in maximum effective range?” Samaira asked. Li Qiu checked the nearest status screen.

“Three hours. Six until it reaches lunar orbit and starts causing trouble with the moon’s gravitational pull and that on Earth,” Li Qiu said.

“And how many shots can we fire in the two hour and fifty-nine minute window we have?”

“At full power? About six. Roughly two per hour. It shouldn’t take more than one though, at it’s current size.”

“These things have done nothing but surprise us. It’d be stupid to think we have any sort of upper-hand now,” Samaira said. “I’m going to update the USAIF and Gary and check on the other defenses.”

“I’ll be here,” Li Qiu said. Samaira mounted Chandrali and rode out the Eastern hallway, toward the hangar Galtero and Brody would be landing at soon. She briefed Director MacDougal as she went, then called Gary and told him the same.

“Something just passed the inner defensive line in the outer atmosphere about twenty minutes ago,” Gary said. “It landed in the middle of nowhere, Greenland. Might be the German and Icelandic hosts, or a chunk of the asteroid, or an alien, or whatever. I’ve sent a full battalion of Exterminators to investigate.”

“I really hope it’s the other hosts,” Samaira said. “What do you think of that color beam Galtero mentioned?”

“The Skill Sapper? Nasty shit. Even somebody like Anya or Renn getting hit with that would go from a powerhouse to a pipsqueak in no time flat. Sounds like it didn’t have any effect on tech though, so at least our automated defenses are safe.”

“Mm,” Samaira said. She didn’t mention that relying even further on the advanced machines made her uneasy.

“All the Lunar Prime drones and Exterminators are on-line and ready to launch. I’ll save them for after Li Qiu fires the first couple of shots. If Willis is still intact after that, we’ll have some serious problems,” Gary said.

“I’ll keep you updated if anything happens,” Samaira said and Gary waved at her as he closed his window. She and Chandrali continued to lope down the hallway to the Eastern side of the base, into the much smaller but still impressive Dome 2.

Dome 2 was occupied by racks upon racks of the Chinese assault droids and a comparatively small but still imposing number of Gary’s Exterminators and DragonDrones. There were at least thirty thousand of the Chinese droids, and several hundred Exterminators. All of them were tucked away or folded in on themselves, and the dome still felt cramped.

The only other living person was a woman a little taller than Samaira. She was black ,with her dark curly hair separated into two tight buns on either side of her head. She wore orange and golden flowing clothes, and a pair of gleaming metallic bracers on her wrists. Amahle, one of two hosts from South Africa, stood before a rack of the Chinese droids with her muscular arms folded over her chest and frowning. She glanced up as she heard Samaira and Chandrali enter, and gave her a curt nod.

“You came to check on the toy soldiers as well?” Amahle asked.

“Figured it couldn’t hurt,” Samaira asked. She glanced at the other woman’s gauntlets and felt something like the aether there. It was more solid and fixed than the amorphous energies of the aether, but it was a positive force. It was strong, full of life, and it reminded Samaira a bit of the Sun’s Heart in Anya’s chest or her Crown of the Firmament.

“Nothing to do but sit around until that big damn rock gets close enough,” Amahle said. Samaira wasn’t entirely sure what her skills were like. Martial arts, energy control, strength, durability, something along those lines. She had some survivability in a vacuum, and she could apparently crack a mountain in two if necessary.

“Galtero and Brody made it back. Cooper didn’t,” Samaira said as she hopped off Chandrali and checked one of the nearby status screens. All of the droids and Exterminators and DragonDrones were fully charged and fully armed. Launching bays were standing by and 100% of the mechanical legion could be launched in under a minute.

“Damn fool,” Amahle said and shook her head. “Should’ve stayed in Australia.”

“He died fighting for us,” Samaira said and frowned.

“No, he died playing superhero. I didn’t want him to, but I’m not surprised,” Amahle said.

“And us? Are we just playing superhero?”

“Some are. But at least they have the skills to maybe make a difference.”

Samaira frowned again and grit her teeth. She hadn’t been close to Cooper, but he’d seemed nice enough, and the aliens killing anybody willing to fight was a loss for all of them.

“Just don’t let Brody hear you talking like that. He might take it personally,” Samaira said. Amahle grunted and then looked up, out the top of the dome and the transparent alloys that allowed them to see the darkness of space beyond. The only thing of note was a very distant, but growing, red light.

“It may not matter in the end,” Amahle said as she looked at the red light. “Hero or not, skills or not. That thing doesn’t give a damn.”

“Well, we’re not dead yet, and the people that are can’t have died for nothing,” Samaira said and then turned from Amahle with Chandrali. She glanced out the window in the hallway at the distant red light and sighed. Whether any of this would make a difference or not, they’d find out soon enough.