The quantum entanglement comms end-post in Outpost Alpha’s central command hub pulsed with a sharp, timed together chime.
For seventy-two hours, the lunar outer edge had been blanketed in deep magnetic silence, drowned out by void heat wave and the ground-shaking fury of the underground mantle. Earth Federation High Command had presumed the worst. On the sky-high threat boards in Geneva and the High Ionosphere Sky-Citadel, Outpost Alpha had been tagged with the dreaded black cross of a compromised guard post, its thirty-eight personnel presumed dead and its sector written off as lost ground.
Then, Toby plugged the restored antenna array into the quantum relay.
BZZZZT-WHIRRR.
The center light-image projector hummed to life. It projected four life-sized, high-resolution figures into the center of the command bridge.
Standing in the center was Fleet Admiral Jonathan Vance—Supreme Commander of the Earth Orbital Defense Grid—flanked by General Valerie Koslov of the Tactical Beast Vanguard and two senior staff directors from the Department of World-size Bio-Assets. Their uniforms were crisp. But their faces were lined with tiredness, their eyes fixed on the live video feed.
When the image cleared. It showed Arthur Vance standing in his dark undersuit beside Sergeant Major Miller and Toby Mallow, the entire Federation bridge went fully silent.
