2175 C.E.

II: All the Medicine in the World

Terran Intelligence Dispatch: 08/09/2175

Ambience Information Network-Terran Internal Intelligence Commission: Ambience host lost in Jimeso raid. TIIC and Ambience operators must locate and retrieve missing host at all costs. End Dispatch.

08/09/2175 0200 EST: Transmission Sent Alpha Ceti 3 Warp Gate: O Alpha Ceti 3: 08/09/2175 0201 EST: Transmission Received Terran Interstellar Authority

Begin Transmission

Ten Grushan interstellar ballistic missiles detected inbound at high warp speeds to Alpha Ceti jump gate. Probable point of origin is Yveran. Countermeasures are active.

End Transmission

08/09/2175 0305 EST: Transmission Sent Mars Military Operations Headquarters: O Mars, Sol System: 08/09/2175 0305 EST: Transmission Received Terran Interstellar Authority

Begin Transmission

Grushan ISBM's have destroyed Mars warp gate. Four of twelve were intercepted in flight. Three detonated. The rest changed course to strike Earth jump gate. An additional fifth missile was destroyed as they left Mars defense grid.

End Transmission

Terran Intelligence Dispatch: 08/09/2175 0401 Local Time

Ambience Information Network-Terran Internal Intelligence Commission: Subject in Kinshasa, Congo witnessed the launch of a small aircraft on the outskirts of Kinshasa. Aircraft was powered by unidentified thrust method, possible vertical landing-take-off technology similar to Terran fighter craft. Object fit no known aircraft configuration. Aircraft then disappeared from visual spectrum. No further confirmation of aircraft in area. End Dispatch.

Personal Journal: William Aucaman

08/09/2175

Adrian left sometime during the night. I was asleep in the next room, so I don't know when exactly, but when I woke up he was gone. I asked when they had left, but no one was able to answer me. I ran into Arya Kumar and asked him; he couldn't tell me when they had left, but he did tell me that the Troy's contact with the offworld had been compromised and the Grushan hadn't been told about the shuttle or our plan. Then there had been an attack on Terran warp gates; the gates in Alpha Ceti, Mars, Procyon and Wolf 359 had all been destroyed by long range tactical missiles. By some absurdly good luck, the Earth gate survived, and Mwangi and the others decided to jump immediately. So they're gone. I don't know how we'll know if they make it; it may be that we won't know until the war is over. And what about Mom and Dad? They were taken into custody by the Hegemony as we left. I don't know if they're even alive right now. And if they were taken into custody, I can't see why they wouldn't arrest my extended family as well; they were never terribly good Hegemony citizens either, and we're minorities besides. If Adrian doesn't make it to Yveran, I might be the last member of my family alive. I don't know what I'll do then.

For the short term, though, I think that I can do some good for the dissidents. Since the war declaration, I've seen a lot going on in Kinshasa, at least in the handful of times they have let me leave the apartment complex that they're housing Cynthia and me in. From what exploration Cynthia and I have done, it looks like the Congolese are getting ready for war in their city. It's mostly minor things, like reinforcing structures with sandbags and steel beams, but I see a lot of men in the streets leaving town with packs over their shoulders, some in uniform. They don't look like any Hegemony uniforms I've seen either; all uniforms look more or less the same, but the African armed forces seem to have developed their own particular style over the years, baggier and slightly more ornate, though I suspect that their combat garb will be very similar to American Hegemony garb. I'm not really old enough to enlist, but if Congo or the other African Confederacy nations are invaded, as they seem to expect, they might be able to use me in some capacity.