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01. RETURN TO EARTH
Along the edge of space high over the Northern Pacific a war is being fought, and in mute, systematic agony, war’s most recent victim appears slowly in the distance. Its mushroom shaped bow shield half torn away and noisy internal damage relentlessly giving away its position, the warship coasts along a now decaying orbit. Larger than the other orbital machines nearby, this vessel is a controller ship – it has people on board. Until a few minutes ago their mission had been operational control of Australian orbital forces passing over the Southwestern Pacific. Now their job was survival.

With most of their command destroyed and their own ship a death trap, both darkly covered forms worked frantically from the relative comfort of their flight couches, their hands flicking away at data threads as they barked out orders and demanded ever more information from their on-board assistants.

Time was running out, they knew it. Another salvo of enemy fire was already tracking in. One form motioned toward the other as they spoke through the network. In near-perfect unison, both leaned back in to their couches, allowing the ejection system to slide over their slender outlines. As the ship shuddered under another trio of hits, the controller units shortened the countdown, sounded the jettison alarm and with a staggering explosion and blast of g-forces the two emergency reentry shields shot free of the crippled vessel. The ship continued on its way, glowing shear lines visible where debris passed through the hull at thousands of feet per second.

Viewed from above, two small points of light diverged from the crippled ship's orbit and sped on their own trajectory down into the planet's atmosphere.

Above them, the war raged on.

Next: 02. Assault on Tars Peliti


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