«Central Akatsuki Cluster, 42 Days Before Impact»

"Over there, Lira, quick!"

Vira led her sister by the hand as they dashed through the tall grass. The yellow sun was setting, and in its wake the black shroud of space was beginning to show.

"Can you see it?"

Lira strained her eyes, focusing on a faint, bluish-white speck floating just above the horizon.

"It looks just like a star."

"You can't see stars yet at this time, dummy," Vira countered. For a minute, the two of them stood hand in hand, admiring the speck.

"You know what, Lira?", Vira let go of her sister's hand and stretched both arms up, as if reaching out to space. "Someday I'm gonna go to Earth..."

The blonde-haired girl smiled, the happiness on her face rivaling the warmth and light of the fading sun.

"... and I'm gonna take you with me!"

***

Lira's eyes fluttered open. She was barely conscious when a heavy pillow hit her right smack in the face.

"Rise and shine, lazy bones! Vacation's over!"

"Oshuzipfra..." Lira muttered under the pillow.

"What?"

"I said, shut up, Farrah! You're interrupting a perfectly good sleep!" Lira tossed the pillow aside, the strands of her long, golden hair scattered against the sky blue sheets. She shielded her eyes from the sunlight streaming through the blinds. For a moment, she remembered her sister's smile. Stupid dreams, she thought as she stifled the memory with a yawn.

Farrah ignored her sleepy moans, and started rummaging through their shared wardrobe. "Pancakes are waiting at the kitchen table."

"Wait, how did we get pancakes?"

"Just kidding, it's just flour and water with some sugar," Farrah responded with a sneer.

"You won't be joining me?" Lira stood up as her roommate started donning a thick gray jacket.

"Can't, we're still struggling to complete the latest Mass Driver Battery."

"On the Zond Network? They're still working on that one?"

"Hey, you're the chief you tell me!" Farrah quipped as she pulled the door open. "See ya tonight! Don't let Xander bother you too much today, 'kay?"

A few minutes later, Lira was sitting alone in the kitchen, chewing on the tasteless lumps that Farrah called pancakes. She was wearing her white Field Marshal's uniform, its brass Veneran Medal glinting around her neck. In a few minutes, the officers' shuttle will be docking by her apartment. She finished her meal in silence, and shortly after proceeded to the glass bridge that was the building's transport corridor.

Outside, it was business as usual. The metallic exteriors of the Akatsuki buildings glinted in the mellow sunlight, making the monochrome view a little more appealing. This cluster wasn't particularly known for its beauty, but it has long been considered the center of the Veneran economy -- for whatever that's worth. From the bridge, Lira can see merchants and tradesmen going about their daily business. Civilian shuttles plied their preset routes, ferrying people from one block to another. In the distance, the endless torrent of Venusian clouds flowed past their floating city. At a glance, everything seemed so peaceful.

When she got to the dock, a dark-haired man in a cream uniform was already waiting for her.

"Xander! Why so early?"

"The factory opened early today," the man spoke in a mellow voice as he opened the shuttle doors. "Looks like they're a little behind on schedule."

"Procurement issues again?"

"Staffing. The workers are falling ill. Something bacterial, if I heard it right."

"How so?" Lira was confused. Bacteria did not occur naturally in Venera's artificial ecosystem.

"We're still investigating, but my best guess is that the decontamination procedures on the latest Santa drops have failed." Xander flipped a few switches and disengaged the mooring locks. The shuttle's engines hummed smoothly as the vehicle detached itself from the platform.

"How many were affected?"

"About 3 percent of the Mariner 3 Cluster. More than 30 people. They're all being treated under quarantine."

"Prognosis?"

"One week to full recovery," Xander replied, steering the shuttle towards the industrial platform of the neighboring Mariner 3. "Say, do you really think this would work?", he asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Hm?"

"All this," Xander continued as he expertly wove through the air traffic. "The preparations, the sacrifices these people are making... I mean, if we're getting the worst they can give us, do you think all these things we're doing would work?"

Lira thought for a few seconds before replying. "We didn't want this war. And I sure as hell didn't want this," she pointed to her brass medal. "But both were handed to us in a damned silver platter, so why the hell not? You know well enough what the alternative is."

"Spend the rest of your life in a prison cell back on Earth?"

"Be treated like cockroaches by the xenophobic Terrans," Lira countered.

The factory came into view, and Xander gently touched the shuttle down. Outside, a gathering of men in brown and gray uniforms lined the dock. They were army officers and facility administrators, waiting for her visit.

"What's this? I thought this was just a routine visit?"

"They didn't tell you?" Xander smiled. "This facility also houses a Nexus extension."

Lira rolled her eyes. "And no one thought that important enough to tell me. Real fun working with you guys." She stepped out of the shuttle, and was greeted with a unanimous salute from everyone present. A soft sigh escaped her lips as she returned the gesture.

"Field Marshal Fari! Thank you for gracing us with your presence!" A grizzled man stepped forward to shake her hand, his old uniform draped like a gray cape around his thin frame.

"My pleasure, Engineer Brocka! Where shall we start?"

***

Two hours later, Lira and her entourage reached the farthest end of the factory. Engineer Brocka had been regaling her with stories of the facility's progress, and the increasing skill set their workers have acquired to deal with the complexities of the job. Now, however, he had dropped back from the group.

"You're not coming?"

"Ah, no workers in the Nexus, that much I know!", the engineer replied, wringing his hands.

"Okay then, I'll be seeing you later," Lira nodded as she entered a thick metal door that Xander had held open for her.

The Veneran Army officers filed into a narrow room, unadorned except for a long white table and a few chairs. It was dark, the only illumination coming from a huge floor-to-ceiling monitor at the other end. The screen showed two circles, a blue one at the top, and a yellow one at the bottom. In between, a rain of red triangles emanated from the blue circle, imperceptibly traversing the black space towards the yellow one. At the top right of the screen, a red countdown showed:

42:06:02:35

"How was your time off, Field Marshal?" A tall, muscular man in his mid-forties made his way towards the control panel on the far end of the table.

"Pretty restful, thank you, General Romero." Lira eyed the red triangles intently. "Do we already know the exact composition of the fleet?"

Romero slid two fingers across the control panel, and the monitor zoomed in on the triangles. The shapes resolved into a mass of silhouettes. Some of them were the distinctive blocky shapes of massive troop freighters, while others were the smoother outlines of atmospheric fighters. In between them were bullet-shaped masses, which Lira vaguely recognized.

"Are those...?"

"Yes, it appears the Terran fleet is also employing mass drivers against the Veneran clusters. They don't even think us worthy of their more sophisticated weapons."

"As for us?"

"The jammer networks are still up, so our preparations are cloaked. Defenses are mostly ready, as you saw yourself today."

Lira eyed the display again, trying hard to steady her heart as she did. There must be more than a hundred spacecraft heading their way, not to mention several dozen interplanetary projectiles.

"A little more than a month," she whispered. "Tell me honestly, General. Do you think we can scrape through?"

"With luck and your leadership, we can." Romero beamed a smile.

Lira looked him in the eye, and smiled in turn. It took all she had to hide the disgust she felt at the moment.

Vira, what have you dragged us into...