Guardians of Infinity

That was what the thing was doing when Taylor found it. It was releasing the primary component. All he had to do then was wait. All this flashed through my mind in an instant. Cole had beaten me by several seconds, but Warden was already trying to isolate this new wrinkle and find a way to stop it. Given my nature and what I had seen already, I was ready to bet on him when the little bell began ringing its ass off in my head again. This time I knew why. I could see from the look on his face Taylor had just remembered the Striker team he had ordered dispatched to Earth! My Earth! They were on their way there to protect it, but what they were going to do was make it the opening salvo in the last of a war none of its inhabitants knew anything about. Given the effectiveness of this new bug, once they landed it could take as little as a few days for all life on my world to vanish. A fact not lost on any of the men with me at that moment, either. The difference was, unlike me, they knew what to do. At least I hoped so. Taylor started talking to the air again. "The teams I ordered to his Earth. How long-" Cole cut him off. He realized the depth of their error as well. "They launched three minutes after you gave the order! Given the mass of that ship they were flying, I doubt they're there, yet, but they aren't far from it in any case!" Taylor turned without a word. Cole followed and I fell in step behind them. Whatever was going on, I had made myself a part of it, and I wasn't through just, yet. Warden shouted at our backs as we all headed down the hall. "They'll make the final insertion in fifteen minutes! After that, it'll be a thirty-minute flight to that Earth. That was it then. Forty-five minutes to doomsday!