Gaia turned her focus to something she had spent the last few decades toying with, as had her people. She began to tinker with the little electronic ones and zeroes that now ruled the world she inhabited, sometimes altering orders as they were sent in to point soldiers in the right direction, and in extreme cases even creating new orders from the ether.

In less chaotic times she wouldn’t dare be so blatant, because while she knew of no way she could be harmed by humans, it wasn’t in her interest to have them searching for ways to neutralize her influence.

As things stood, however, she felt confident that even if her machinations were noticed, they would be discounted as memory lapses, glitches, or other unremarkable happenings in the course of war. She’d gotten away with far more devious actions in the past.

It was her way.

BENEATH 1600 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE, WASHINGTON, D.C.

THE REAL-TIME war map had depressingly large black spots still filling it, but those were smaller than they had been. Routing SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) through alternate means was tricky business, but it could be done. Some were now running through the civilian network because it had mostly been moved over to optical fibers in the last few decades. Other bits were now being bounced off recently launched microsats that were actually just tiny communications arrays tied to helium-filled balloons.

It was a stopgap solution to the gaping holes in their communication network, but it was low cost, fast, and it worked. Between those microsats, orbiting UAVs, and the civilian network, they were almost fully back to operational standards.

That meant that now they all knew just how bad the situation really was.

“Jesus. Look at the chunk they took out of Los Angeles.”

“Get reinforcements down the coast. Who’s in the area?” the President demanded.

“The GW is in San Diego for refit. They can launch from there.”

“Do it,” he ordered. “How are we in other cities?”

“They’ve ignored most of middle America,” the general answered. “We do have landings in Texas, the Dallas/Fort Worth region of course, but most of middle America has low population density . . . I really think that these things are just targeting people.”

“That doesn’t make me feel much better, General,” the President sighed, slumping in his chair.

“No sir, I understand that, but it gives us a fighting chance.”

“Do we have any forces in Texas?”

“Not a lot, sir. Mostly just Guard units and, to be honest, they’re slow to move.”

“Are we going to lose Dallas, then?” Conner asked tiredly.

“Maybe not. Locals are armed in that area. Between civilians and police there’s a pretty heavy firefight all through Dallas.”

Conner blinked. “Are they actually doing anything?”