“Alright you two, let’s get going,” she said, turning toward the humid jungle. “We’re burning daylight.”
CHAPTER 3:
As Doctor Solomon’s pre-programmed speech played, the gears and hydraulics controlling the dozens of satellite dishes whirred to life as his computer program ran though its start up protocols. Each dish moved independent of one another, each finding a programmed target in Earth’s orbit. As they clicked into place, one after another, they began broadcasting the same signal.
The data bursts leapt from the Earth, striking seemingly dormant satellites in Earth’s atmosphere. The long-range telemetry satellites, finally glowing with previously latent power, fired small maneuvering rockets, realigning toward their remote targets. Firing massive bursts of energy and encoded data, the signal launched into the void of space.
The signals traveled, unhindered, through the vacuum of space. Invisible to the naked eye, the signals passed within mere meters of traveling ships and crossed over heavily trafficked trade routes.
For some signals, the journey lasted mere hours before reaching their targets. For others, the journey would take months of near light-speed travel before it would reach the receptors that remained angled toward the distant Earth.
The signals with the shortest distance reached their targets before anyone knew of the danger. They struck their target with such speed that warning sirens were never raised. Silently, their untimely death traveled through the void, intent on their demise.
The first signal struck a small heat-shielded ship, which hung in a low orbit around the sun of the Protagon Galaxy, which was inhabited by a race of amphibians that had supplied minor military support to the Interstellar Alliance. Though unmanned, the ship received the signal and altered its course. Dipping its wings, it began a haphazard decent onto the surface of the sun. The metal plating on the ship began to bubble as it entered the sun’s atmosphere. The damage to the ship increased as friction and heat from the surface struck the hull in waves. Strips of metal began to run like wax under the intense heat and panels broke free and disintegrated under the assault.
Through the waves of ambient heat, the ship continued its suicidal decent. The nose of the ship broke apart, exposing the alloy girders that formed the framework of the craft. Fire and acrid smoke filled the cabin of the shuttlecraft, setting fire to the minor furniture that decorated the stripped quarters. As the ship neared the surface of the sun, the last of the metal plates on the exterior of the ship melted away. The girders themselves began to twist and bend under the temperature and pressure, exposing a single black canister that seemed impervious to the overwhelming malevolence of the yellow sun.
As the last of the ship was destroyed, the single black canister fell free, pulled downward by the intense gravity of the sun. The cylinder struck the liquid magma, splitting open and gushing Deplitoxide onto the sun’s surface. The black chemical spread from the canister hungrily, multiplying and converting the magma in growing tendrils emanating from the point of impact.
Across the Protagon Galaxy, the amphibians crawled from their watery homes to watch in horror as a black plague spread across their sun. Tendrils of darkness spread across the southern hemisphere of their sun, greedily devouring the warmth and light that spread across their planet. The blackness swelled until only slivers of sunlight still remained, and even then the ravenous chemicals continued their conversion of the magma into the dormant liquid covering the sun. The amphibians watched as darkness spread across their planets, casting them into an unnatural night. Without the life-giving sun, a chill began to permeate the planets. Temperatures plummeted and, though the amphibians dove deep into their underwater homes, they couldn’t escape the cold.
Throughout the known universe, the signal reached out to pre-positioned objects. In the Raalst Galaxy, home to the Oterians, two seemingly harmless satellites began their suicidal descents into the red and yellow suns. Near the blue sun of the Avalon’s home galaxy, a canister was ejected from a passing freighter. Beginning with the closest galaxies, suns disappeared one by one under the poisonous chemical.
And still, the signal continued its destructive course.
CHAPTER 4:
Keryn and her crew pushed through the thick jungle until they came to the outskirts of Miller’s Glen. With most planetary and all interstellar travel being conducted by air, there were very few roads that led into the city. This allowed the jungle to creep nearly to the outlying buildings. The trio stopped at the edge of the city, thus far unmolested and unseen.
Reaching under the collar of her jacket, Keryn exposed the radio strapped to her throat. Pressing the talk button, she called back to the ship.
“Talon Base, this is Talon Six,” she called, using the call signs she had established with Cerise before leaving the ship.
After waiting a moment, the small radio receiver concealed in her ear crackled to life. “Talon Six, this is Talon Base.” Cerise’s soft, effeminate voice, typical of the Avalon species, replied over the radio.
“Task Force Talon has reached the city limits. Radio signal reception beyond this point is unknown, but expect delays or communications blackouts due to the tall structures. We will be maintaining radio silence for outgoing messages unless in an emergency, but will still be able to receive signals. How copy?”
Cerise’s voice carried smoothly over the radio. “That’s a good copy. Talon Base will be expecting radio silence for incoming signals.”
“Talon Six out,” Keryn finished her transmission, once again concealing the radio under her jacket collar. She turned back to the other two members of her assault team.
“Remember,” she said, “stealth is the key. Make yourself inconspicuous.”
“Stealth,” they both replied in unison.
Stepping out of the foliage, Keryn and her team slipped past the large stone buildings that marked the beginning of the city. Miller’s Glen sprawled like a miniature metropolis; its stone buildings quickly gave way to the metal and glass structures that jutted from the center of the city in progressively taller and larger buildings. To Keryn, they looked like demons clawing over one another on their way out of hell; their metal spires rose like hands reaching in vain toward the emerald sky. The skies above the city were full of recreational crafts, flying in a carefully orchestrated three-dimensional overlay of airways.
The entire city encompassed no more than two square miles, but the inhabitants packed as much activity into such a small space a possible. Market stalls spread down the narrow streets as merchants hawked their wares. Fabrics from all corners of the known universe stood proudly beside exotic fruits from distant home worlds. Illegal Terran technology was brazenly displayed on the streets by sellers who had little to fear from Interstellar Alliance police forces; the police forces were rarely seen on planets so far removed from commonly traveled space.
Miller’s Glen had been founded as a melting pot of races interested in interspecies trade. Merchants arrived in an amalgamation of ships, each representative of their home worlds and unique physiology. After clearing away a patch of jungle, they established a trading village that catered not just to the legitimate merchants but to black market salesmen and smugglers. What began as a small trader’s haven quickly grew as travelers near the Demilitarized Zone began spreading word of the potential wares available in the small jungle city. The more the money flowed freely through the streets of Miller’s Glen, the larger the established stores. Street stalls were moved into one story stone buildings; one story stone buildings were moved into glistening towers of metal and glass; and those in the glistening towers cared less and less about the quality of inhabitants living in the streets below. The town, in essence, became the perfect hiding place for a traitorous smuggler like Cardax.