“Finally,” Ashton said, “when Makara mentioned my name, I let open the doors.” Ashton paused, as if to collect his thoughts. “Rather than surprise you all with my voice, which would have distracted you from finding the Black Files, I instead rushed to upgrade Samuel’s clearance remotely so that he would have no trouble accessing the Files. I waited, and listened to your conversation, hoping that Samuel would explain everything adequately. I was prepared to fill in any missing information, but he explained it all rather well.
“However, it became clear that you could not remain in Bunker One long. Skyhome’s surface monitors intercepted a sound wave from Ragnarok Crater indicating that the swarm was on the move. In connection with what you just learned in Bunker One, I surmised that the Voice had discovered your presence, and was calling for anything controlled by it to converge and attack you.
“That was when I spoke to you all, from this very office, warning you to get to the runway. After that, I rushed to the Gilgamesh. I could be at Bunker One within thirty minutes. I didn’t think you would have that amount of time. Turns out, I made it to the runway just in time.
“And we’re here,” I said.
“Quite the story,” Makara said.
“Indeed,” Ashton said. “But now that we’re all here, and you know how you came to be here, we can focus on what needs to be done. You have had a month to rest and gain a sense of normalcy in your lives, such as normalcy counts. We must plan for the future.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Xenofall is coming,” Ashton said. “And you are going to be the ones who stop it.”
“How?” I asked.
Samuel turned to face us. “Back in Bunker One, I talked about there being a central hub that communicates with the xenofungal network. Ashton came up with much the same idea, and we think there might be something to it. However, we can’t know anything unless we have feet on the ground.”
“You need someone to investigate Ragnarok Crater, don’t you?” I asked.
Samuel nodded. “That’s right. The only thing is, it’s the oldest part of the Great Blight. The turners will be thickest there, especially if there is some sort of central hub controlling everything. They’ll want to protect it.”
“What makes you think there is a central hub?” Anna asked.
“The question isn’t ‘is there one’,” Dr. Ashton said. “It’s a question of where it is. The wavelength monitor picks up a frequency coming from the Crater, so that’s where it is. The question is getting there to destroy it.”
“And what will it look like?” I asked. “Is it a brain, or…”
“We don’t know,” Samuel said. “That’s what we need to find out.”
“So how do we get in there without being seen?” I asked.
“There’s probably no way to get in there without being seen,” Samuel said. “It’ll be an all-out battle.”
“There’s four of us,” I said, “and you want us to fight a battle against everything? I don’t think so.”
“That’s where the first part of our mission comes in,” Samuel said. “We’ll need reinforcements.”
“And where are we to find these reinforcements?” Anna asked.
“Down there,” Samuel said, pointing to Earth. “We have two spaceships up here, the Gilgamesh and the Odin. We can take Odin.”
“Who’s going to fly it?” Makara asked.
“Please, pick me,” I said.
“Makara is,” Ashton said pointedly. “I will show her everything there is to know.”
Makara’s eyes widened. It was the first time I’d seen them light up in weeks. “I could learn that.”
Samuel smiled. “I thought you might like that. Once we get situated, there are still a few things we need to take care of. Number one on our list is stopping the war between the Empire and Raider Bluff. This will mean contacting both Char and Augustus. We will need both if we are to take the fight to Ragnarok. We also need to locate Bunkers 76 and 88. After soldiers, we want their weapons and supplies. And it would be good to find out if they are still around.”
“Alright,” I said, “stop a war and find a couple Bunkers. Should be easy.”
“We should also go to L.A. and Vegas,” Samuel said. “It’s a long shot, but they are the most populous cities in America at the moment. If we can get any of the gangs interested, they could join us in the attack.”
“They’ll be too busy being at each other’s throats for that,” Anna said.
“We have to try,” Samuel said. “I’m sure they are worried about the Blights as well. Who wouldn’t be? When we offer a plan that could destroy the Blights, they’ll listen.”
“How will we get everyone to the Crater?” I asked. “Odin, from what I understand, is smaller than Gilgamesh, and even Gilgamesh and Odin together wouldn’t be big enough to transport everyone. Not by a long shot.”
“Odin is S-Class, but is the oldest of the four ships,” Ashton said. “And yes, it is smaller than Gilgamesh. It holds eight crewmen. But that is for long-term flight. Together, I’ve calculated that both ships together can carry well over a hundred passengers. It’ll be like sardines, but it could be done, no problem.”
“So we will board both ships with a strike team of the very best,” Samuel said. “Meanwhile, the vast majority of the army will enter the Great Blight from the southwest, near where we entered it. Hopefully, that move will draw the attention of the turners and the Voice that commands them. With luck, that will leave the Crater undefended. That’s when we drop in, find the hub that controls the Voice, and kill it.”
“Alleged hub,” Makara said. “We still have no idea if it exists or not.”
“It does,” Ashton said. “Something is behind the Voice. If that can be destroyed, the entire invasion will be directionless. It is something we must do before the second wave comes.”
“Even if we manage all that,” I said, “even if we kill off this Voice thing and stop the xenovirus from spreading…what do we do when they come?”
Ashton answered. “No one knows what that will be like. We can’t predict what their numbers will be, or what fighting capacity they will have. I will communicate with you all from Skyhome while you’re on board the Odin. I’ve been pointing Skyhome’s telescope into space constantly, but have yet to discover anything.”
“Seriously, you’re giving us your ship?” Anna asked.
“I wouldn’t unless the matter called for it,” Ashton said. “Odin is all yours. Gilgamesh will stay here.”
“How long will I need to be trained to fly it?” Makara asked.
“There’s not much to it,” Ashton said. “I learned the controls within a month. In the meantime, Samuel, your team can continue to recover here while Makara trains.”
“So I guess a month from now, we’ll be starting,” I said.
We had our work cut out for us. We would know, very soon, which of us would be extinct: us, or them. After what I had seen of what the xenovirus could do, I didn’t think the odds were in our favor.
Xenofall was coming.
About the Author
Kyle West is a science fiction author living in Oklahoma City. He is currently working on The Wasteland Chronicles series, of which there will be seven installments. Books 2, 3, and 4 are already available. Find out immediately when his next book is released by signing up for The Wasteland Chronicles Mailing List.