Chapter Forty-One – Operation Moon Boom

Chapter Forty-One – Operation Moon Boom

“So, from today onwards, the European Union will no longer be called the European Union. The word Union has been tainted by the leftists and those who would steal from the deserving and give to the worker. From now on, the EU will be the European Corporation, a corporation of national entities working to improve the lives of the deserving!”

–EC Political Speech, 2041

***

“Yeah,” I said to fill the immediately awkward silence.

Susan–and it was kind of weird that there was a middle-aged dude called Susan–shifted slightly. I had the impression that he was sitting on his knees, which… alright. He was in a very fancy office, but the background also looked kind of ancient? Wooden walls and those rice-paper screens that Asian supercorps liked to decorate with.

Doctor Radikal, meanwhile, looked like he was stuffed in a lab that was about fifty square metres too small for all the junk he was trying to stuff into it. I couldn’t name a tenth of the equipment behind him, but it all looked like the sort of shit you’d find in a lab.

“So, uh, before we waste each other’s time,” I began. “Has the Keiretsu and the… Nacht….watcher…networks….”

“Nachtwächternetzwerk,” Radikal corrected quickly.

“Right, thanks,” I said. “Have you guys been in contact with each other already? Because I’m worried that we’re going to be double-teamed over here.”

“We have only been in contact recently,” Susan said. “As of yesterday, in fact, but this is one of our first official meetings to discuss how we all intend to move forwards.”

I nodded slowly. “So there’s no pre-existing agreement or something like that in place?”

“Only an agreement to discuss things here and now,” Radikal said. “Which is why our discovery of your project was so fortuitous.”

“How did you find out anyway?” I asked. “It’s not like we were trying to be obvious about it. Actually, it’s the opposite, we’re trying to be discreet here.”

Radikial shrugged his shoulders. “One of our netwerk’s samurai is an information gathering specialist. She let us know about the project and we researched it further. Likewise for the Keiretsu, though they were not nearly so secretive.”

“We have no intention to be subtle,” Susan said. “The fatefaith of humanity and Earth is on the line. This is not a time for secrecy.”

“Oh, I don’t know, there’s a certain value in discretion,” Radikal said. “But in any case, yes, I’m glad we’re all here to discuss things.”

“Yeah, cool,” I said. “So, we want to address the elephant?”

“The elephant?” Susan asked. His eyes glowed for a moment, then he nodded sagely. “Ah, yes, a western idiom, I see. Yes, we should address the elephant.”

I shifted in my camp seat. It wasn’t the most comfortable thing I’d sat on. “So, all three of us have ways to fuck up Phobos. I’m assuming some of these will interfere with the rest of us, and while I’m not point-hungry, I bet some people are and nabbing Phobos means a fuckload of points.”

“That’s a good point,” Radikal said. “As things are, the project that would strike Phobos first is our own. It’s also the most likely to cause interference. Then the Keiretsu’s drones would be in strike range next, followed by your own project.”

“If our goal is to save Earth, is there any reason we should change that?” I asked. It would suck if we spent all these thousands of points on the Big Gun only for it to go to waste, but at least we’d all be alive enough to earn more points later.

The doctor shifted slightly, then nodded. “Let’s first go over our individual projects so that we might all be on the same page, yes?”

“That’s fair,” I said. “Wanna go first?”

“Certainly! The Nachtwächternetzwerk has created an in-orbit device we’re calling the Weltraumgewittermeister Teslakollisionsgenerator.”

“That’s… the what?”

“Ah, yes, forgive me. The… Space Storm Master Tesla Collision Generator? I believe that translation is accurate,” he said with a nod. “It’s a large orbital device that we’ve installed and which is moving to Earth’s second Lagrange point as we speak. It should be arriving there within the hour, in fact.”

“And what’s this thing do?” I asked.