She sighed audibly. “Currently the most we could take out with that move would be a few dozen at a shot, which sounds great until you realize that we would have to sacrifice one of our own ships for each strike. That would still leave more than enough flying around to annihilate everything, and no one would have any way out.”

Alexander slumped, looking defeated. “So it’s over then.”

Neither of the other two could quite manage to gainsay his words. They hadn’t wanted to put it into the open, but there it was and they couldn’t contradict it. It was all over. There was nothing else to be done. Once the Heroics were forced to abandon Earth orbit, all three of them were well aware that there was nothing in the universe that would keep the Earth from being overrun.

It wasn’t even a matter of time, really. They were already losing ground in dozens of places.

“Admiral, we need to begin an evacuation plan,” the President said heavily. “You need to get as many people as you can off world. I’m issuing orders now. I’ll have them sent to you in hard copy, to that effect. Admiral, Amanda, you are to leave orbit before they can trap you. Am I being clear?”

She nodded slowly. “Yes sir.”

“Okay, then start by sending your shuttles to Spaceport Earth. I have people working there that you’ll probably need,” Conner said, stone-faced.

The entity known as Gaia listened, watched, and roared impotently at the universe around her. She was beyond frustrated at this time, beyond angry, beyond reason most likely, and she knew it all.

Omniscience was not always a gift. It could be a curse that tore at your soul . . . to be forced to watch, to hear, to observe so many things pass before her and fundamentally be all but unable to intercede.

She could use agents, humans who were able to hear her in their subconscious like Eric Weston, or she could even appear herself and issue command edicts . . . yet neither seemed likely to accomplish anything at this point, and in all honesty neither ever had.

So now she observed her final end through the eyes of those who would prevent it, and found herself as helpless as they against the coming wave. Her world, her people, they were herself, and she couldn’t even save herself.

Gaia felt a bitter swell of emotion, centered where her heart might be had she had an actual human body. It was a copy of what she’d experienced vicariously through others uncountable times, but this was the first time she knew it firsthand. It was unpleasant, a knotting sensation that made her feel like the heart she didn’t have was physically shutting down.