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Toet to the ninth floor by 0408 There, his neural processor informed him the battle for today would be in the Reaches

Tom knew that the Reaches was that sector of the solar system that spanned from the point of Neptune’s closest orbit to the sun to the Kuiper Belt It was so far from Earth that every strike in the Reaches had to be planned months in advance, and the side that went on the offensive al was, there was sothe ene platforms was the trickiest task of all

The military worked with NASA to dispatch the ar mobile cannons, satellites, and support drones to the site ement All the plans for strikes in the outer solar system in the next six months to a year were stored in the Vault on the Mezzanine floor of the Spire The Co with them, woke up with the battle plans from the Vault downloaded in their processors the day they were due to attack Though formal battle plans never survived contact with the enemy in traditional warfare, attacks in the Reaches were often so swift and destructive, the enee

Soon, a handful of other Middles lucky enough to have their fly-alongs today trickled in Wyatt was one of theru Her scowl deepened when Heather sashayed over to collect Tom and lead hih his "Ready?"

"Ready," Toht interface for this fly-along You’ll hear me, but you won’t hear the other CamCos" They stopped outside the door to the Helix Co the ninth and tenth floors where the Ca battle "If you have any questions, you can think them out and I may think back an answer to you I’ll probably be too busy"

"Got it," Tom said

Middles weren’t yet authorized for entrance into the Helix, but there were a series of cots that rolled right out of the wall on the ninth floor, outside the entrance, where they could interface for the purpose of the fly-alongs The Middles were supposed to lie down on the their Ca the space battle

To authorization codes into her forearave an excited flutter "Good luck"

She shook her head "Luck’s not a part of it If we lose a battle in the outer solar systeistics ht course for the drones and weapons to reach the site of battle in ti with the satellites and we can’t get real-time communication Sometiy beams from the Promethean Arrays don’t reach us"

Tom nodded He knew from Tactics that Promethean Arrays were the devices in the Infernal Zone in close orbit around the sun They collected energy with their solar panels, focused it in a concentrated beahout the solar systeistics would send a coy beams toward the outer solar system, and they’d do so anywhere fro upon how far away the site of battle was going to be The Indo-Ay conductive, so when the beay into an ato explosion propelled the ships to the site of battle

"The point is," Heather went on, "we’re not the ones who determine victory when it comes to the Reaches The Promethean Arrays do"

"Good luck, anyway," To similar to Wyatt, his own Middle "There’s not much spontaneity in the Reaches This will be short See you on the other side"

Heather cast Tonetic smile "Later, To hooking into his neural access port