“What are everybody’s levels?” MacDougal asked the assembled hosts. She stood next to President Hanover’s desk in the Oval Office. Hanover himself sat behind the desk, with General Johnson flanking his other side. The rest of the Joint Chiefs were present, as well as the Secretaries of State and Defense. Tori stood next to Anya, and while her face was calm and composed, Anya could sense her heart pumping her blood rapidly through her, beating a panicked rhythm inside her chest. Anya stood next to her and put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Tori took a breath and smiled at her.

Anya returned the smile, then leaned against the back wall, Felix floating beside her, with Pan attempting to imitate her casual stance on her other side. Samaira sat with her hands folded on her lap on a couch next to one of the Joint Chiefs, Chandrali perched behind her in her house cat form. Gary stood opposite Anya and Pan, idly tapping at the side of his glasses, adjusting some display on a HUD only he could see.

Chell was the only American host not present. She was currently in the Mojave Containment Facility (or the MCF as it had been dubbed by Johnson),and its medical bay next to the still-unconscious Immonen.

“I’m level 93,” Gary said.

“Level 76,” Pan said.

“I hit level 80,” Samaira said.

“And I’m at level 87,” Anya said.

“Is that enough?” MacDougal asked.

“Enough for what?” Gary replied. “To take down a few more Alpha or Omega-level threats? Oh yeah. To destroy a hunk of space rock bigger than Australia? Yeah I could whip something up no problem. To destroy a hunk of space rock bigger than Australia that is potentially populated with god-knows how many aliens? No idea.”

“Do we know if the asteroid actually has aliens on it?” Johnson asked.

“I made some modification to some of the scopes at NASA,” Gary said. “With permission, of course. It’s teeming with movement, but still hard to tell at this distance. There’s some interference around it.”

“Interference?” President Hanover asked.

“Hard to say what, exactly, but something I would loosely call atmosphere around the asteroid. Like clouds or fog or something. Obviously not possible under normal circumstances but, well, not much is normal these days.”

“Willis is roughly 2,700 miles across at its widest points, according to the NASA report,” MacDougal said. “That’s a lot of room for aliens.”

“Willis?” Samaira asked.

“Somebody named it after the star from that asteroid movie.” MacDougal said.

“Nice,” Anya said. She got a few looks and glares from the Joint Chiefs and shrugged her broad shoulders.

“Our levels are a rough indication of overall power,” Samaira said. “Dr. Immonen is somewhere around level 70-80, but he’s completely unsuited for any sort of combat. Lady Yai is also at level 93, but isn’t capable of production like Gary.”

“I understand all that, but I mean you all. What’s your maximum damage output at these levels? Have you assigned all of your points yet?”

“No, none of us have. We’re waiting for Gary’s scans and probes to send back more information before we commit to anything,” Samaira said.

“And you, Hendricks? How’s all that and the new factory production coming along?” MacDougal asked.

“The new factory will be finished tomorrow, thanks to the help of General Huang diverting some resources to me. And yes, I’ve scanned and triple-checked everything he’s sent for bugs or anything and it’s been clean. I’ve already begun drafting plans for a variety of long-range missiles to destroy Willis.”

“Good start,” Hanover said. “What else?”

“We could buy some spaceships and heavy artillery from the RAC store, put up a perimeter around Earth,” Anya said.

“The stuff in the RAC store ain’t worth the damn money. Better off buying raw materials and giving them to me,” Gary said.

“You and your factory will be taxed enough as it is,” MacDougal said. “And I’m not comfortable relying solely on one method——or one person——for our defense.”

“Ms. Nowicki,” Johnson said, “Could you break that thing up? Give us smaller targets to work with?”

“Maybe. I do more damage off-planet, would be closer to the sun. If it was just a big asteroid, after I level up, yeah, I might be able to handle it,” Anya said. “But it’s got aliens on it. I doubt they’re just going to let me fly over there and do my thing. Ditto for any missiles or other attacks we launch at it. I doubt the ‘assault wave’ is going to be weaker than the aliens we’ve fought so far.”

“And how long do we have now?” Hanover asked. Anya gestured at Felix and her AI brought up the map of the solar system that was tracking Asteroid Willis.

“About six days!” Felix said.

“Perfect! Mr. Hendricks will have his factory up well before then. Problem solved,” Hanover said. MacDougal’s expression didn’t change much, save for a slow narrowing of her eyes and a tightening of her lips.

“If you’ll recall from the briefing we gave you, Mr. President, the first timetable the menu AIs offered their hosts was off by almost a year,” she said. Anya remembered it well: she’d just met Carl at a cafe near 26 Federal Plaza. Felix had alerted her that the aliens had made planetfall a year ahead of the original predicted date.

“That’s true, but we’re not relying solely on AI information this time,” Gary said. I’ve observed the asteroid myself, and the folks at NASA have confirmed that it’s roughly a week out at its current rate of speed. It has not accelerated since we learned of it, only adjusted its course. I have my equipment monitoring it non-stop and I’ll get a heads-up if anything changes. For now, we do appear to have a little less than a week before it hits the Earth.”

“Pan,” Johnson said and looked at the pangolin. Pan squeaked and clicked his claws together.

“Y-yes?” he asked.

“If that asteroid is made of rock and minerals and ore, could you break it up?” Johnson asked.

“Yes. It would take me a long time to break up something that big, but I could definitely do it if it’s just a big rock. But what about what Anya said? The aliens won’t just let me stay on their aster…asta…on Willis. They’ll hurt me.”

“Anything we plan is going to involve alien interference,” Samaira said.

“What’s the damage of that thing hitting the planet?” Hanover asked. “Worst-case scenario?”

MacDougal snorted. “The extinction of the human race.”

“An asteroid half that size would do it,” Johnson added. “Hell, according to NASA it won’t even have to touch the planet to start causing trouble. If it gets close enough at its current size, it’ll play hell with the oceans, probably causing flooding all over the planet. Millions dead.”

“So we have less than six days if we want to avoid any catastrophic damage,” Samaira said.

“So we send all the hosts out to meet it before it gets close. Kill the aliens, blow up the asteroid,” Hanover said.

“That’d be putting all of our eggs into a single basket,” MacDougal said. “If they fail, it’d be the end for all of us.”

“Would it?” Johnson asked. “I’m not suggesting a suicide charge, but so far, the aliens primary focus has been on the hosts. What if they just…left?”

“Don’t like the idea of running, but if it was a guaranteed way of saving Earth, I’m in favor,” Gary said. “We have access to ships. No FTL stuff, but enough that we could get away.”

“Even if it was just to buy time,” Johnson said, “not permanent. Lead the aliens on a chase around the solar system, give us time to prepare something, set Hendricks’ new factory to auto-assemble something powerful enough.”

“That could work…assuming the aliens follow you. I think we’ve established they won’t be falling for decoys anymore,” MacDougal said.

“It won’t work,” Anya said.

“Why not?” MacDougal asked.

“Well first of all, we still don’t know where all the hosts are. There’s still at least a few dozen out there somewhere who haven’t made contact with any government or any other hosts. If the aliens are half as clever as we think they are, they’ll just smash into Earth, then come after the hosts drifting around in space.

“Second…when I saw Omega, it seemed happy. Or satisfied. Something. It was the first emotion besides anger I’ve seen from these freaks. And London wasn’t about just killing us, it was testing us, seeing what we’d do. If innocent people were in danger, would we just let them die or would we risk ourselves to save them?”

The office became very quiet for several seconds.

“So if the hosts run, they’ll just keep coming because they know it would be a ruse to save the planet,” Johnson said and sighed.

“Exactly,” Anya nodded.

“So, what? We’re just screwed?” Hanover asked.

“Not dead yet,” Gary replied. “But we know running isn’t much of an option.”

“So we commit to the attack,” Johnson said. “A multi-stage series of that chunk of rock down to a pebble before it gets to Earth. Hendricks, you know what the point of no return for that thing is?”

“I’ll need to check a few things, but if that thing is still full-size by the time it starts approaching our moon, it’ll be an issue,” Gary replied.

“We’ll need to coordinate with the other nations too, and make a public statement,” MacDougal said.

“Yeah, do that,” Hanover said and Anya rolled her eyes. “And hosts: before you uh, do that point leveling thingy, run any changes past MacDougal.”

“You want us to get approval for using our menus?” Anya snapped.

“I’ll remind you I’m not part of the USAIF. My menu, my property. Also this kind of nonsense is why I didn’t vote for you,” Gary said.

MacDougal ignored Gary and gave a quick look to Anya, Samaira, and Pan. It was subtle, barely a nod and a wink.

“Is you eye okay?” Pan asked her.

“It’s fine,” MacDougal said and sighed at the pangolin’s obliviousness. “And yes, Mr. President, I’m sure the hosts will comply and we’ll figure something out together.”

MacDougal looked over Hanover’s head at Johnson and the General just gave her a curt nod. Anya wasn’t certain if this meant she’d be able to allocate her skills as she liked, but it was enough for her to keep quiet for the moment. Still, if they tried to tell her how to use her menu, that was it. She’d resign or whatever she had to do and go be independent with Gary.

“Hosts, please meet with myself and General Johnson at the USAIF office in three hours, with a plan for your menu resources including points and RAC ready to go. Mr. Hendricks, please assess where the point-of-no-return is for Willis, and be ready to present any weapon proposals as well. I’ll leave the contacting of our allies to the Secretary of State,” MacDougal said. “Anything else, Mr. President?”

“No, I think that’s enough. I need to lie down,” he said.

“How inspiring,” Gary muttered.

“Dismissed,” Johnson said.