Victoria blazed incandescent; a beacon of hope against the boundless setting of interstellar space and the lesser candles flickering about her, whose wan lights were eclipsed by the purity of her transcendent radiance.
Nearby, the fleet waited, its presence a resolute testimony to what would shortly take place. Two Dreadnaughts, four cruisers and ten Frigates—a paltry representation of the might they possessed—spread too thinly to accomplish what they were here for.
Extending her mind, Victoria blended to the psyche of Jade Heung, her ascended counterpart aboard the Olympus who would be leading the task force during the ordeal ahead. A necessary precaution, as the jump coordinates locked into each ship’s navigational computers were not only stunningly complex, but a vital link in the defensive chain that would ensure the flotilla’s almost instantaneous relocation to high Earth orbit, a place they would make their stand following the first phase of the combined operation.
Always efficient, the Lord Procurator indicated her readiness.
And now, only two minutes remained until it all began.
Just two fleeting minutes until mankind—and they themselves for that matter—discovered if they really could live up to their name. Casting her farsight over a hundred million miles forward, Victoria scanned the first wave of human missiles crawling toward the rendezvous coordinates at a sedate twelve thousand miles per hour.
In the scant time they’d had to prepare, only five hundred tiny needles of lethal potency could be mustered for this opening gambit. Although they represented the finest killing technology of the world they were trying to protect, lying as it was a mere ten million miles away behind her, she didn’t know if it would be enough, for the bulk of their arsenal was needed here at the line.
Thankfully, their manipulations of the interplanetary medium had proven successful thus far. Abaddon, Angel of the Abyss—the name given to the monster bearing down on them with uncompromising ruthlessness—had been forced to decelerate to just under seven hundred miles per second. Soon, it would reach the first of the hastily prepared contrivances that would hopefully snatch even more wind from its sails: a constriction buoy.
Positioned as it was to activate when Abaddon was only eight thousand miles from it, this first marker was armed with a focusing collar more than ten miles in diameter. Devised to swallow the energy released by the simultaneous detonation of those nuclear warheads and antimatter mines activated within range of its matrix, the constriction buoy would channel a substantial proportion of the resultant pressure wave in one direction: straight into the face of Abaddon; the intent being to slow it further, weaken its integrity and knock it off course.
Easier said than done, but at least it would give the secondary, smaller buoy a chance to deal with what was left as they executed the second part of the plan . . . hopefully.
With just under a minute to go, Victoria risked the distraction of a few brief side scans. Firstly, she assessed the speed and course of the returning Guardian armada who had been halfway toward Kalliste when the shocking news broke. She found them easily enough. And though they were pushing their engines to the limit, it was plain to see they wouldn’t be in a position to help for two days yet, a truth she found disheartening.
Next, she determined the current position of her father and brother, still gingerly nursing the giant psitronic crystal home. It did no good fussing, of course, as it wouldn’t make them come any faster. But the mere fact that she could verify that no further backup was available stiffened her resolve to live up to her own name and succeed. Well, that’s that then. It looks like I’d better get on with it.
Exerting herself for a third time, Victoria sent her consciousness skittering back toward Earth, to ensure Anil, the Lord Evaluator, was ready at the site of the former Academy. His role involved directing the teams who were putting the finishing touches to the atmospheric jacket they’d managed to generate over the preceding twelve hours. So far as she could ascertain at this distance, it looked ready to go. Good.
Finally, she did likewise toward Moon Base, only to discover she was being watched. The mental voice of the Lord Marshal arrowed into her mind: Don’t worry about things this end, Victoria. We’ll do our part, you concentrate on yours. No matter what happens today, humanity will know once and for all who we are.
Acknowledging Earl Foster’s remark with an ethereal thumbs-up, Victoria severed the connection and reflexively verified everyone and everything were in place one last time anyway. Satisfied, she ramped up her output onto the declamatory mode and called: GUARDIANS, ATTEND YOUR DUTY!
The first wave of missiles was now past the constriction buoy and less than a hundred miles from the carefully prepared minefield. Perfect.
Activating the buoy, she zeroed in on more than a thousand high yield antimatter assets arranged in a gradually tightening spiral formation, with the open end of the cone facing out toward their intended target—a target now only eight thousand miles distant.
Victoria counted down in her head and triggered the mines. An instant later, the gravo-nuclear warheads followed suit. Dialing back the range of her stupendous sight a little, she subconsciously held her breath—a needless, autonomic reflex remaining over from the days she bore a wholly human form—and waited to view the results of their handiwork.
A dazzling burst split the darkness. Blossoming outward in the manner of an immense, ice-frosted stained-glass window reflecting sunlight, the explosion rushed to ignite everything in its path, expanding in a snow-white fusion of fury that, despite its exuberance, would not be seen by those on Earth for a further ten minutes.
Victoria altered her perspective slightly so she could measure the potential within that shockwave. Delighted by what she found, she followed the coronal discharge as it churned onward with the might of a relentless breaker, straight at their nemesis and back toward the waiting embrace of the constriction buoy. The moment the leading edge of the rearward surge broached the threshold of the ring, a molten golden net sprang to life. As the obscene deluge continued to flood through the aperture, the mesh bulged, swelling larger and larger until, like an elastic band that could stretch no further, it snapped forward, flinging the absorbed potential back from whence it came.
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Abaddon shuddered, and Victoria’s heightened senses shared every moan and creak as the seismic stresses brought to bear ravaged the leviathan from end to end. Without warning, spurts of gas began hissing from vents freshly opened across its surface, highlighting just how powerful the first blow had been.
Others must have seen the vapors too, for hundreds of queries flashed to and fro around her. Refusing to be badgered, she shouted: Pipe down!
For ten long drawn-out seconds Victoria watched and waited. She checked and rechecked; then checked again. At last the indisputable proof stood revealed.
Hailing her fellow Lords, she crowed: We’ve done it—and better than anticipated. The damned thing is travelling at only four hundred miles a second. The drinks are on me later if we do as well in about five minutes from now.
Pressing on, she allowed her enormous telekinetic faculty to settle over the remaining five hundred gravo-nuclear missiles. Assessing what would be needed to ensure their arrival on target was synced to the salvo that would soon follow; she adjusted the strength of her invisible grip to suit and swatted them into motion, en masse.
The waiting armada was strung out behind Victoria in a staggered pyramid formation. Initiating a short hyperspatial hop, she assumed her new command position high above them and switched back to declamatory mode: CAPTAINS, INITIATE YOUR JUMP ENGINES AND HOLD AT THE READY UNTIL YOU HAVE RELEASED YOUR ORDNANCE. I WILL PROVIDE FINAL COORDINATES FOR THE STRIKE. STAND BY TO FIRE ON MY FIRST MARK.
DO NOT HANG AROUND TO ADMIRE THE OUTCOME. JUST BLAST THIS THING AND GET TO YOUR DEFENSIVE POSITIONS. FOR THOSE OF YOU ASSIGNED TO EARTH ORBIT, THE LORD PROCURATOR ABOARD THE OLYMPUS WILL ISSUE FURTHER DIRECTIONS. THOSE HEADINGTO MOON BASE WILL BE DIRECTED BY THE LORD MARSHAL.
STAY SHARP AND WHATEVER YOU DO, DON’T FORGET. . . LIFE IS THE PRIORITY. PROTECT THIS CIVILIZATION WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE AND BRING HONOR TO THE NAME WE BEAR!
Reassessing their objective, Victoria was surprised by how quickly Abaddon had closed the gap. Tumbling over and over like a lopsided potato, it loomed larger and larger with each passing second as if threatening to crush them if she dared look away again. Calculating its rate of rotation, she could already feel its gravitational effects upon the local interplanetary milieu.
Calling her compatriot aboard the Olympus, she advised: Jade, make ready with the Infiltrators. Remember, you’ll be initiating their transference on my second mark.
Roger that, Victoria. They’re already primed and ready to go. I’ll be teleporting them personally so don’t go fretting about accuracy and timing.
The Infiltrator was the Guardians version of an overt tactical weapon. Tailored to carry multiple warheads if required, it had been designed precisely for what they were using it for today: the removal of large roving foreign bodies that presented an unacceptable hazard to life and property.
Sheathed within a temporal scrambler, the Infiltrator could be teleported inside solid objects intact and without detriment to its functionality. The materialization sequence itself detonated the decanitrocubane antimatter core, resulting in an explosion eight times more destructive—gram for gram—than pure antimatter alone. When used singularly or in clusters, the results were always impressive.
Victoria spent some time poring over the meteoroid’s composition. Selecting three points; one at its geophysical center; the other two where its structure appeared weakest, she made haste to share those coordinates with the Lord Procurator aboard the flagship. Next, she widened her scan bubble to confirm the current position of the gravo-nuclear missiles and their corresponding distance to the constriction buoy.
Satisfied with what she saw, she addressed the fleet: SHIP CAPTAINS, MAKE READY! FIRE ALL BATTERIES ON MY MARK . . . MARK!
Potent and deadly, eighty antimatter torpedoes stabbed forward at breathtaking speed, closing on the approaching angel of death as if the distance involved was negligible.
Below her, the inky expanse sparkled as her instructions were followed and the commanders took their ships away.
As planned, the outgoing bombardment caught up with the preceding missile salvo so that both waves arrived on target at the same moment. Activating the secondary constriction buoy, Victoria signaled her counterpart in the magazine bay of the Olympus: Jade . . . now!
Their timing was perfect.
The Infiltrators manifested, detonating deep within the asteroid’s core. Clearly visible, ripples could be seen radiating in incongruent patterns across Abaddon’s surface for the briefest fraction of a second before the accompanying dual fusillade struck. The brute then disappeared from view in a cacophony of light and conflicting energies. When it emerged several heartbeats later, it had been transformed into a chimera, something no longer capable of bearing the wounds inflicted upon it.
Victoria felt as if she was watching a speeded up movie-clip on continental drift, for over a dozen principle chunks of the meteoroid started floating away from the central core, the cataclysm having finally overpowered its ability to maintain gravitational cohesion. She knew this was only an optical illusion, of course, as those pieces were still hurtling along at an unearthly speed. But the majestic grace of their vacuum assisted waltz proved strangely mesmerizing.
Not for long. An instant later, the constriction buoy went to work. Flaring into existence, the gravity net ballooned to encompass the energy generated by the blast, before recoiling with terrific force. Yet another fist of stunning vitality jackhammered out, straight into the exposed jaw of the remaining mass.
The remnants of Abaddon exploded away from each other like tenpins kissed by a cannonball. Keen to gain as much information as she could on what they still faced, Victoria fine-tuned her shields and allowed the leading fragments from the debris field to filter through for closer scrutiny.
As she did so, Victoria continued sweeping her ultrasenses back and forth in converging arcs until she was able to confirm that almost all of the larger hunks had been knocked beyond the plane of the ecliptic. Free to spiral off into the depths of space, they would never bother anyone again.
Sadly, there was little opportunity to celebrate, as three particularly large segments—two more than eight hundred yards across and one measuring nearly a mile in diameter—continued parading stubbornly on along their original course, seemingly just as determined to make their unwelcome presence felt.
The processional triumvirate was courted by an entourage of smaller asteroids exceeding dozens of yards in circumference. Scores of them. In turn, that throng was accompanied by an uncountable swarm of impressive shards and splinters.
Victoria’s defensive screen bloomed again and again; over and over, as countless thousands of slivers imposed on its integrity. But she would not allow herself to be hurried.
Finally, she had what she wanted.
The explosive bulwarks and thickened interplanetary medium had served their purpose, for the speed of the approaching storm had been reduced to less than two hundred miles per second. Now, hopefully, the modified atmosphere would take care of the smaller pieces while the Guardians did what they could to prevent a large-scale loss of life from the pile-driver’s still intent on reaching Earth. For pile-driver’s they were.
While Abaddon had been reduced to just under a quarter of its original mass, the three principle segments were planet killers in their own right. And due to their exotic makeup, many of the larger fragments being dragged along with them were more than capable of leveling cities, vaporizing lakes and causing widespread mayhem.
Regardless, the ensuing storm would be survivable, if the protective cordons did their job. And she would ensure they would. They were Guardians as the world was about to see.
Jumping the trifling ten million miles back to Earth, Victoria positioned herself fifty thousand miles beyond the Moon’s orbit. From there, she updated the fleet and waited with them as the final minutes counted down to what would later be known as: Guardians Day.