Chapter 18

Year 3, Day 33, Solitude, Terra Prime.

Alexander took a deep breath and rechecked the seals on his armour for the fifth time. He really wasn't looking forward to his mission, it was self-imposed and no-one else knew about it, so he could back out, but it was vital to his plans so he ran through a mental checklist one last time.

As the Australian dimension hopper made sure the small orbs attached to his harness were secure he grimaced. Today was a huge risk. Without a doubt the biggest risk he'd ever taken. Not to him personally, but if he cocked this up Endeavour was done, everything he'd worked to archive in the last three years would be laid to waste. Oh he could start over, but despite how much he pretended to be the cold calculating overlord, he still felt like his was going to vomit at the thought of the people he'd come to know dying a brutal death.

Steeling his nerves he checked the straps connecting the clone trooper CMMU, Covert Manned Maneuvering Unit, to his armour one last time, activated his stealth field, and swiped his hand through the air to bring up the transit menu. He quickly navigated to a preset universe, one that had taken him longer than normal to find, and tapped the execute button. He wasn't surprised to see bright red text flash up in his field of vision.

WARNING: TARGET SECTOR CONTAINS ACTIVE TYPE-3 TRANS-DIMENSIONAL TECHNOLOGY. ​

DO YOU WISH TO CONTINUE? Y/N. ​

Alexander took a deep breath and tapped the yes button.

***

Year 3, Day 33, High Earth Orbit, Universe KMI-501-731-V-7

Alexander was momentarily disoriented as the world faded back into view. He fought the urge to panic as the sheer emptiness of space seemed to swallow him up. It wasn't the first time he'd been in space, but it never got any easier, his fear of heights along with the unnatural feeling of weightlessness always disturbed him. In addition the fact that he'd made four quick jumps before hand, in the hopes of muddying any trail he might leave, wasn't helping matters.

After a few moments he got himself under control and activated his CMMU, slowly turning himself, being careful not to overdo it and send himself into a spin, until a bright brilliant blue and green orb appeared before him. The view made the unpleasantness all worth it.

Ever since he was a child he had been fascinated by the famous 'Earth Rise' picture taken by the Apollo astronauts, and here he was walking amongst the stars. For a long time he simply stared at the wondrous sight before him. He knew the evil lurking on the planet below, and he mourned what he had planned for the almost pristine world, but at that moment it didn't matter, all he could think about was the sheer beauty of Earth when seen from space.

After a long moment Alexander began to unclip the microsatellites from his harness, letting them float free in the void. Once he had them all arrayed around him he flipped open the dataslate on his left gauntlet.

Alexander paused a moment, before bringing up the LVIOS interface with a blink. 'Better double check, just to be safe', he thought to himself as he set the super-advanced device to passive scanning mode, looking for anything else in orbit. He already knew from his extra-dimensional scouting that there were a handful of communication satellites and had planned his insertion accordingly, but that had been a few days beforehand, and the last thing he wanted was to miss something.

A short time later the scan results came back negative, sighing with relief he began working on the dataslate again. One by one he activated the stealth fields on the microsats and sent them on their way to their pre-programmed positions.

It would take time for them to get into position using the stealth mode, a few hours for some, days for others. The satellites themselves were military grade equipment from a universe at least several thousand years more advanced than the inhabitants of the world below him, but he wasn't taking any chances here.

As the last microsatellite faded from view Alexander triggered his CMMU again, he'd drifted while he had been working, bringing the Earth back into view.

"It's a real pity I'm going to blow this one up" Alexander mused to himself as he hit the transit command to start him on his way back home.

***

Excerpt from Alexander Harlow's Personal Journal. Year 3, Day 29, Endeavour, Terra Prime

Project Brainiac continues to evade my every attempt to make progress. I'm beginning to think I'll need to bring someone into my confidence if I want to get anywhere, but unfortunately all the reasons for keeping my body-modification projects secret are still valid. I simply don't have anyone I trust enough.

Research into Nootropic drugs from the SWU has given me some ideas on possible avenues of attack, but I'm not confident in my ability to make permanent alterations to duplicate the effects without drastically altering my personality.

The Star Wars universe has been a goldmine of information, but perhaps it's time to begin researching elsewhere.

A/N: Next arc starting, wonder if anyone will guess what this one is crossing with.