"Surprisingly good," he said before pressing on.
"Evan… Sir, I´ve been thinking about our last conversation. I feel bad about it, and while you may see me as too tied in with Alexej Lunde to be of any use to you, remember that I have served other head servants just as I would serve you. My duty and my loyalty is to the Moon people and the Covenant, not to Lunde," he said. He felt his cheeks grow hot from embarrassment. He wasn´t used to groveling.
"You would serve me loyally, is that what you´re saying? And in return, you would maintain your position and be my foremost advisor?"
"All I want is to serve the Covenant, and you will make an excellent leader."
The young man´s snicker surprised him.
"You really are something, Mark Novak," Evan said. "I know what you did to my father. In one way, I hate you for it. In another, I understand why you did it. For the record, your actions did leave us in a more favorable position than we would have been in if my father had lived. I´m afraid he would have been swayed by Ivanov to have us go to war too early, too unprepared. Ivanov and his cronies would have led us into a black hole of self-destruction. I don´t want that, and I´ve been honest about it. I want us to be free from fear. That´s why, as soon as I came to power, I began making preparations. I strengthened our forces, reduced our reaction times, sent in spies and sleeper cells, and positioned our forces to attack. You don´t know this yet, but we are already at war, a war I intend to win." Mark held his breath, shocked by this revelation. He had suspected Evan knew about his role in the murder of his father, but the casual way he spoke about it was chilling. And now he had gone to war. When Mark didn´t reply, Evan continued.
"One day, you will pay for what you did. But not today. You will serve me faithfully, but you will no longer be in a position to manipulate events or even have much influence on my decisions. Fair enough?"
Mark nodded. It was the best he could hope to gain. For now.
Evan
"All right, the orbitals are down, but we´re on track with everything else, right?" Evan asked. First Janissary Ivanov stepped forward.
"The Eastfold Brigade already have the airborne components, meaning recon and a few special operations teams that will secure strategic points along the northern invasion route, well west of the Rift. All of these should already be on the ground. The main component of the brigade is moving forward and crossing the Rift as we speak," he said. Strategos Janev continued once Ivanov stepped back.
"The Africa battalions are landing on the southern coast of the Dead Zone as we speak. We expect them to have secured the beaches by dawn. First Airborne Battalion is boarding as we speak, and the scramjet escort is in the air. First Armored Infantry is on the east bank of the Rift and will be crossing shortly, escorted by the Wardens and Second Airborne Infantry. Third Artillery Group are shelling Buchanan´s northern defenses. We expect the Janissaries will have little opposition after we´re done," he said, smiling smugly.
Evan nodded. So far, so good.
"Strategos Jenssen?" The head of special operations stepped forward, having made the short trip back from his staff to deliver his report in person.
"Sir, the Luna Brigade has taken out Buchanan military high command, and we took their strategic assets without much resistance. However…" He hesitated.
"What?"
"Sir, it seems Buchanan has better cyber defenses than we anticipated. In fact, they are aggressively pursuing control of the aforementioned strategic assets as we speak. Unless we take them out, I fear they might regain control."
"You´re saying they might regain control of their nukes?"
The Strategos nodded.
"We cannot let that happen. Missile command, be ready to launch. We may have to use it or lose it," Evan sighed. Buchanan was putting up a fight, and he´d expected no less. As dawn crept closer, he knew the coming day would decide the future of Earth. He wondered if they had to nuke everything and if there would be anything left to conquer after they...
Chapter 17
Evan
The alarms blared and interrupted his train of thought. Evan looked up at the screen covering the wall. A red dot near Buchanan blinked.
"What happened?" he shouted above the noise. Strategos Jenssen stepped closer.
"Sir, that´s one of their missiles, and in a few…" He didn´t complete the sentence, as the projected trajectory appeared as a dotted red line.
"It´s headed straight this way," Evan said.
"Legacy," Jenssen whispered as someone killed the sound of the alarm.
"How long?" Evan asked. Strategos Alexandrov from Strategic Assets answered in a dry tone.
"Minutes, sir. We don´t fully know their capability, anything between fifteen and forty-five minutes, depending on the missile. We´ll know more in a few seconds."
"Can we shoot it down?"
"We´ll know soon enough. That´s what we´ve trained for, sir, but we can never guarantee anything. If we had the orbitals, we´d stand a better chance." Evan waved him off.
"Alright. The rest of Strategos Command should be in the bunker within five minutes, right?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good enough. Now, Strategos Jenssen, how could this happen?"
"Well, sir, I told you their cyber defenses were better than we anticipated. They must have gotten through and launched as soon as they were able. It’s just one missile. My people tell me they still control the rest."
"Sure about that?" Evan said. Strategos Jenssen nodded confidently.
"Yes, sir. We may even have an idea of how they got the one missile back, so we can prevent it from happening again."
"Good." He turned toward Alexandrov. "How long?"
"It is ballistic, sir. Eleven minutes and sixteen seconds, sir."
Evan could hear Alexandrov´s gasp. This was much faster than anything the Covenant had in their arsenal. It would be the longest eleven minutes of Evan’s life though. He watched the blinking red dot crawl steadily closer to Legacy and growled between his teeth.
"They took out our orbital platforms, so they have some sort of secret weapon. If we launch our ballistic missiles, they may just as easily take those out as well. How long does it take to reach Buchanan with cruise missiles?"
"About forty-five minutes, sir," Strategos Alexandrov replied.
"Have Missile Command stand by. I want the birds in the air the second I give the order."
Tina
Tina was aware of the fighting going on in the valley below. There were flashes of light, and she had heard the whine of scramjets above. She didn´t know which side they belonged to, but she knew the war had already started.
A bleep alerted her on her infopad. She looked down and saw Ramon´s face waiting for her to answer.
"Speak to me, Ramon," she said.
"Tina, all hell is breaking loose," he said excitedly.
"I´d think so. Fill me in, would you?"
"Well, there’s been some kind of cyber battle, or whatever you call it. First, Buchanan—that´s the good guys—lost all their nukes and most of their comms, and the bad guys—the Covenant—managed to take out their military high command. But Buchanan had a backup system, so the show´s being run by military intel now, headed by this woman called Selma. They managed to regain control of one of their missiles and have launched it against the capital of the Covenant."
It´s going nuclear, Tina thought. That was the worst-case scenario in any war. Once the attack-retaliate routine got started, the spiral wouldn´t stop until one side had eradicated the other. Or they eradicated each other.
"This is bad," was all she could say.
"Shefania is furious with us," he said. Even in the midst of tragedy, Tina couldn´t stop from smiling.
"We expected that. Will she help us?"
"She´s on her way as we speak."
"Then let´s just hope it´s not too late."
Dave
Dave was rounding up everyone from the Frost Observatory as they entered the cleari
ng.
"Keep out of that area over there," he said to someone walking too close to where Tina and Ramon´s shuttle had stood, shooing them back to the others. Tina had just told him about the ark that was coming and how they planned to save as many people as possible. She had also told him how Ramon had convinced his superior, someone called Shefania, to disable the Covenant´s orbital platforms so they couldn´t launch their nukes from above. That should at least buy them some time.
Dave looked over at a shackled figure standing face down with two strong men beside her. He took a deep breath and tried not to think about it. He wondered if Liz would ever be herself again or if she would have to live out her life in chains to protect others—and her. He shook it off and walked over to Tina.
"That´s all of us. A hundred and twenty people, give or take."
"I just wish we could take more," she said. "There´s room for several thousand in the ark. If we could get some of the people from the city up here…"
"I have an idea," Dave said, tapping his infopad.
Moments later, Dr. Simms’s face appeared on the screen.
"Ma´am, I need a favor," Dave blurted.
"Well, son, you´d better hurry. The enemy´s coming this way, and you know what´ll happen then." Dave felt his blood freeze over, but forced himself to stay focused.
"Ma´am I need you to put me in touch with EMCOM." Dr. Simms seemed to hesitate before she shrugged.
"Just a moment."
Her image disappeared and another, a black screen with the words EMERGENCY COMMAND in bold red letters at the bottom, appeared.
"This is EMCOM. Speak," a distorted voice said.
"Dave Wagner here, with most of the scientists from Frost. We just had an airship take us into the mountains. Any chance you could route it back here? We´re trying to save a lot of people."
"Aren´t we all?" the voice replied drily.
"Listen to me. You know what the Frost was designed for in the first place. Well, they´ve returned, and they are willing to evacuate as many as they can take." Dave was growing desperate. They had to help. After a long silence, the voice returned.
"Wagner, I can do better than that. We have an airship coming in from the east. I´m sending them your way. Five minutes tops. Just make sure the landing patch is clear of people," the voice said. Dave realized this was a different voice, an older woman´s voice.
"And David, will you please tell Renee that Selma said hello?" That made absolutely no sense to Dave, but as long as he got his ship, he didn’t care.
"Sure," he said.
"Good. And take good care of Miss Atlas for me." The image disappeared.
Atlas! Dave gaped at the blank screen.
Sue was coming.
Chapter 18
Sue
The airship landed softly, and they all rushed out. She was helping Jason out when she saw Dave standing with a black woman in a jumpsuit. He was waving at her.
"Dave, what are you doing here?" she asked when they were near enough.
"Long story." He hugged her, and she hugged him back, fighting tears. "I see you got your brother out. I´m glad you did," he said. He looked at the airship, nodding approval.
"I need to speak to the pilot," he said, walking toward the airship. The female ranger stood in the opening, but moved aside to let him in. Renee remained by the aircraft as well. A moment later, she noticed Grey came out and walk toward the black woman. Sue walked over to Renee.
"What´s going on?" she asked.
"Well, the war is definitely happening. As of a few minutes ago, this thing has gone nuclear." Grey came out of the ship again, and Sue turned toward him.
"We should get the Bliss to Frost as quickly as possible. Maybe they can…" Grey gestured at the people standing on the edge of the clearing.
"See them? Those are the scientists from Frost. We´re too late," he said. She was about to reply when a bright light lit up the night, followed by what felt like an earthquake. Sue just regained her balance when a loud roar reached them.
"Take cover. We´re far enough out not to be harmed by the blast, but too close for any real comfort," Grey shouted. They all got down, finding whatever cover they could. A warm wind swept over them, and Sue knew a nuclear detonation had taken place nearby.
The black woman stepped out in front of everyone.
"Don´t worry about the radiation. We can deal with that once we board the ark. Remain calm, and everything will be all right," she said loudly.
"We´re good to go," the ranger said, and Renee nodded in acknowledgement. Dave came back out, jaw set and a dangerous glimmer in his eyes.
"What´s going on?" Sue demanded. Renee turned toward her.
"That was the Frost Observatory that blew up. He used to work there," she said. Renee gestured upward.
"There´s a shuttle of some kind coming to pick you up to get you all somewhere safe. Dave here can fill you in."
"I should go with you," Dave began.
"No, you will not. You get these people safely on board the spaceship," Renee retorted.
"Hey!" Sue had to shout for attention. "I´m right here. I said, what´s going on?"
"I´m taking this ship into the city to pick up as many as we can, get people out, whatever I can do."
"That´s just…"
"Insanely stupid, yes, I know." The French woman sighed.
"They killed my people, you know. Soon they will kill yours. I just want to fight, and if I can save some people in the process…" she trailed off. Grey interrupted her.
"I have orders from my superior, our superior, that Renee is to lead the rescue attempt while I stay here with Mr. Wagner. We are to evacuate as many as we can. Renee, you are to save first and fight after, okay? That´s your order of priorities, get it?" She nodded. He smiled at her before he continued.
"Okay then. Good luck, Frenchie!" he said. Renee climbed on board the airship. Sue thought for a moment before jumping in after her.
"I´m coming whether you like it or not. I´ll be damned if I´m going to stand here and do nothing," she said. Renee shrugged.
"Merde, you crazy English."
The ranger went over to have a word with Grey before she returned.
"Okay, let´s get going," the ranger shouted into her mic.
The airship lifted off and turned toward Buchanan.
Mark
The alarms were loud enough that Mark had to put his fingers in his ears. Evan had told him the war was already happening, but alarms blaring in the streets of Legacy couldn´t be a good sign. He looked out the window and saw people running in the street below. Mark tried to think of what the siren meant: was it an air raid or something else? If it was an air raid, Evan and his people must have underestimated Buchanan by a good margin. Mark would have expected the Covenant to rule the skies, with their Earth- and space-based assets. The orbital platforms, which had prevented infiltration so far, should have been completely superior to any air-capacity Buchanan could muster. Unless there was something they´d missed.
All of his plans, his ideas, and his work to change the Covenant and strengthen Buchanan had been in vain. The two were destroying each other, and he didn´t want to see what came after. He remembered speaking to his friend Trevor two centuries ago about what would remain after the cataclysm.
"Life will be primitive, that´s for sure," his friend had said. "There will be no art or music or books, no scholarly efforts, no beauty. Everything will be about surviving: how to put food into our bellies, how to get clean water, how not to have whatever you gather taken away by your neighbor. It´ll be ugly, man."
"But it´ll get better, don´t you think?" Mark said. Trevor nodded.
"One day. Let´s hope. But by then, our culture will be forgotten, civilization long dead."
Civilization had died, and what hadn´t been forgotten in the years following Impact had been erased by the Moon people through their reshaping of the world. History is written by the victors, the old adage said, and that was never tr
uer than in this moment. If the Covenant succeeded in eradicating Buchanan, its existence would disappear from history.
Buchanan had been Mark´s only hope. As long as Buchanan existed, it was a link to the past, the true past. That´s what threatened the Moon people the most. Not Buchanan´s nuclear arsenal or their skirmishes across the Rift, but the fact that the people of Buchanan knew. They held the truth. Once that truth was lost, the Moon people, that abomination born in the blood-soaked dust of Luna, would reign as gods.
The Moon people would be gods.
Mark never saw the ballistic missile as it descended on Legacy. His eyes went blind in an instant of searing light, but he never had time to recognize it. He never saw the people in the streets evaporate or the buildings disintegrate like sandcastles on the beach when the waves came crashing in. He didn´t even realize it as his body came apart, molecules breaking up into invisible particles, making it seem as if he had never been there at all. It was as if his final thought lasted longer than he did, and then only silence remained.
Chapter 19
Evan
As the rumbling subsided, Evan looked at the people surrounding him. Their faces were ashen. Some cried, and others were stunned. Legacy, their capital, was no more. Only a few reinforced bunkers like this one, deep below ground, remained. Evan watched as people hugged and comforted each other, and his face turned to stone.
He had started this, and he meant to see it through. Would it be cheap? Of course not. They were paying for it right now in blood and tears. Was it worth it? He hoped so. In the end, the loss of lives would be worth living free from fear, free from having to constantly subjugate your neighbor, lest he revolt against you.
He had known the price would be steep, and he was willing to pay it.
"Strategos Alexandrov, launch the cruise missiles on Buchanan."
"Yes, sir," the head of Strategic Assets replied and then spoke into his handheld infopad. He waited for the reply and turned back to Evan.
Legacy Page 11