The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (mini ebook reader .txt) 📕

were difficult to distinguish. However, a cluster of structures pinpointed the heart of the settlement.

“Seems like significant activity given four months and a few hundred settlers,” she said. “They have been very busy. Thoughts?”

“Difficult to say,” Forsythe replied. “We’ll need to move considerably closer to sharpen these images and make a thorough analysis. But if you study the topography, it appears the settlement is nestled against a dramatic rise in elevation to its north. In other words, backed up against a wall.”

“Hmm. Not a smart military strategy for a so-called god. They must have believed we’d never come after them.”

“Your orders?” Forsythe said.

She turned to Nilsson and lowered her voice. “What do you think?”

“Given what we see, I would come in here.” He pointed to the settlement’s north boundary. “It’s almost certainly the least defended and the shortest route for my team.”

“Good,” she said in a hushed tone. “We’ll try to land you as close to the surface as we can but prepare for the worst.”

“Gravmods will be activated.”

“Excellent. I think this will …”

She took a step back and appeared to revisit the idea. But Nilsson realized the Admiral’s eyes caught another holowindow, one examining the planet on a larger context.

“What was that?” She asked to no one in particular.

“Excuse me, Admiral?” Forsythe said.

“There. Focus on the regional telemetry. Extend it outward from the settlement. No, no. Not so fast. Go back in. Wait. Now. There! Do you see it?”

All eyes on the command bridge focused on the image, but no one appeared on the same page with Poussard.

“It’s incredible,” she said. “Do we have other convex angles?” Without waiting for an answer, she continued. “How do you not see them? They’re thin but incredibly tall.”

A Presidium rep yelled, “Yes, I see them.” Three officers followed.

“Ah, yes,” Forsythe said. “Almost impossible to see from this angle. But yes, and they’re … wait …”

“There’s eight of them,” Poussard said. “I do believe I’m looking at a circle. Yes? And what, dear protectors of the Chancellory, appears to lie directly in the center of that circle?”

The graphics moved swiftly, highlighting eight spikes and conveying the geographic relationship between these structures and the settlement. But the data confirmed it: The concentric circle, distance between the towers and the settlement, and tower height.

“OK then,” Poussard said. “That’s new. And I very much doubt a few hundred terrorists did this in four months. I believe they possess a secret weapon. Yes?” She turned to Nilsson and whispered. “Go to the landing bay. Prepare your team.”

“Yes, Admiral.” Nilsson wanted to stick around to see where this madness was headed. On his way out, however, Nilsson heard Poussard’s newest pronouncement:

“The best way to defeat a secret weapon is to expose it. Hmmph. These lunatics have given us the key to victory.”

60

JaRa

 

V ALENTIN BOUCHET SMELLED DEATH. It was not the resurrect-fifteen-minutes-later variety. No, this was the permanent rot of soldiers decaying on the battlefield. It was the unforgivable slaughter of lives cut short too soon because of humanity’s neverending folly. He honed this sense of smell as a soldier of the Guard. He embraced its unique essence when he crisscrossed the Collectorate murdering alongside James and Rayna and later watched Berserkers atomize thousands of humans with no more than malicious will.

Today, the smell was more hideous because it was personal. He was about to lose family no matter his choice of action. Play this horribly wrong, and the last smell would be his own burning flesh. Perhaps he deserved it. Maybe both brothers should pay the ultimate price for the misery they inflicted upon the galaxy.

Valentin wasn’t prepared to render so drastic a judgment now. He had family to save. They were children; they deserved better.

Six of them stood shoulder to shoulder inside the Scramjet, awaiting their final orders. The bloodstains were removed from their armor, and their hair was wet from a necessary washing in the Bengalese River. The Scramjet sat outside the industrial sector, where it was kept as the sole ground-based ship. All other vehicles patrolled in space.

“I realize these events have been difficult to process,” Valentin told them. “But our fortunes have turned. We cannot rely on our external defenses to ward off the entire enemy. Questions?”

They stood erect, eyes burrowing into their Admiral. Resolute, silent, focused on the same goal as every other day: Victory.

“Good,” Valentin said. “Not a word of the events you witnessed, not even among yourselves. Report to your duty stations. Amp any relevant intel directly to me. Understood?”

“Yes, sir,” they said in unison, fist over chest.

“Outstanding. You’re dismissed.”

He thought of quarantining these six while they posed a security risk; but taking them out of the fight was not an option. He needed all seven hundred and two immortals engaged. Their specific role was new, but the hybrids would pose no objections.

Valentin pivoted to Col. Arnaud Joosten. A fine soldier, one of the best at training newly liberated immortals, and a Slope-skilled navigator. Valentin trusted Joosten, although he was no substitute for Col. Miguel Lennox, who would have handled this mission if he weren’t recovering from his burns in a medpod.

“Your thoughts, Colonel?”

Joosten was visibly shaken by Michael Cooper’s arrival. What he learned thereafter brought the same combination of skepticism and heartbreak as it did to the six younger soldiers.

“We already face the possibility of a siege too massive for us to handle,” he said. “This new strategy places our defense of the city at risk, Admiral. Several days ago, we celebrated Inauguration with them. It was the first time I’ve seen immortals and hybrids mix with a sense of unity. These other two, Michael and Samantha, say the hybrids will betray us. But who are the real traitors here?”

“Arnaud,” he said, a brotherly hand resting on the