FutureSight - a YEAR 10000 story

18 - Final Plans

Daren stepped out of his ship and into the busy atmosphere at the underground lair. It seemed like everyone had something to do; for a second he wondered if the Ejiir were headed this way.

Waiting for them near the docks was Vergeir, dressed in his usual all-black attire. He seemed a little hurried.

Daren walked up to him as the rest of the troops began to unload the computer. "Awfully busy 'round here... what's up?"

The man twitched his eyelid slightly. "The Ejiir have been reported in this system. Sensors say it was just a scout, but that means that they're already well on their way. We should be safe here under Dampheere, unless the Ejiir start looking where they don't belong."

Daren looked behind him at the growing pile of computer parts. Then he turned back to Vergeir. "Well we can't just wait this out. If we do, by the time we make our move the Ejiir will have crushed all other resistance."

"I agree," Vergeir said as he absently scratched at his chin.

Daren nodded some," okay... so what do we do about it?"

Vergeir turned around, gesturing to the barely hidden chaos. "We've got no choice but to launch our fleet as soon as possible. We'll leave behind the non-combatants; they should be safe here."

"Okay. And then what?"

He turned back to face Daren. "Then we fight. Draw attention away from our base. Once we launch the main attack, the Ejiir will have to scrap any other planetary invasion schemes just to concentrate on us. I believe the best place to make a stand is Dren Suried; it's one of the few capitol worlds left and under heavy Triad protection."

Daren chuckled a bit; that had been his idea too but he hadn't told anyone. "Funny you should say that. Anyways, that's fine and grand and all, but what about FutureSight? Did you clear a room out for it here or what?"

Vergeir hesitated and blinked once. "No, and we're not going to." Before Daren could interrupt he held his palm up and gave him a stern look. "We can't afford to leave FutureSight behind. Not only might we need it during the battle, but if this base gets captured then the Ejiir will have this superweapon."

"So we're taking it with us?" Melinda asked.

"Yes, on our flagship. It should be safe there."

Daren sighed and leaned up against one of the computer components. "Well it better be. I went through hell to get that thing."

"There's another thing Daren. We've managed to create a warhead from the virus samples you gave us. It's armor piercing and should be able to detonate inside the target vessel. Daren, we want to arm your ship with this missile."

"Hey, now wait a minute here. I don't wanna be no hero or anything; I just wanna fight those dirty sons of bitches." He held his hand up and looked Vergeir in the eyes. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

The man nodded. "Yes Daren, I'm sure. You have remarkable skill as a pilot; it is highly likely that you're the best one here. We've only got one round to work with, so we have to make it count. Daren, you'll have to get close to their flagship as to make sure the warhead doesn't get intercepted. It'll be hard, but I think you can do it. In fact, I'd bet you're the only one that can do it."

"And you know the bio-weapon works, right?" he double checked.

Vergeir nodded," with some certainty. There's about a 20% chance that our current virus model won't work, but while we're gone the whitecoats here will be trying to develop something more potent. It will be very fast acting."