Chapter Fifteen
Earth
A dozen starship commanders stood silently around
the strategy table, surveying countless blueprints, grasping
for some key element there they'd missed, coming up blank.
It was a lull in the heated discussions that had been taking
place since they’d arrived at the secret Mexican bunker. The
bunker had been set up expressly for this purpose, a place
to meet in the event of a disaster like this, its coordinates
hidden deep within G.L.E.E. codes to prevent any spies
getting a hold of them. Most of the starships that had been
within the solar system had made it back to Earth within
hours – the Cazadora among them – and now their captains
were faced with the task of finding a way to win the very
heart of the Galactic League back from their robot enemies.
They were leaderless, and that was a problem. Tripp and
the other Rear and Vice Admirals were trapped within the
robot-held Headquarters, and there had been no further
contact with them after Tripp’s initial message to Up. Every
commander had their own ideas about their situation, but
none of them actually seemed to stand a chance of working.
“Headquarters has the highest security known to man,”
said Commander Li, breaking the silence. Up’s former
commander was the most senior officer there. She was also
the only female in the room. “It’s going to be damn near
impossible to get in.”
“The robots did,” said Up, for what felt like the
hundredth time. “We just need to figure out how.”