~ Chapel Perilous ~

[Malaclypse 666]

The "Project" had been called by many names since its first conception those months ago.. "Cue ball", "Side Pocket", even jokingly "Operation Over Alejandro" for a while after Pops first revealed it in the IND Trader's Bar at its old Manhattan location.

The Project had been simple in theory. Strap, mount, or partially bury enough massive fusion engines on a planet to change its orbit. Not only its orbit, but its entire solar system. Preparations had begun, with the shipment of massive numbers of fusion engines, spare engine components, and Deuterium to manufacture H-fuel for the engines. The number of ships and installations both on and around Planet Bora Bora had changed the airless desert planetoid into the System's biggest shanty town. The Colonials had worked side by side with Junkers, Rogues, conscripted labor, even androids and mechs; until their sudden decision to escape Planetform's and Bretonia's clutches forever.

The project continued however. Fusion engines were buried deep in the bedrock of the planet at strategic locations and angles.. More engines were mounted on massive girder and forcefield structures which could be detached once optimum acceleration was obtained, and could then be reattached as needed for vector correction and deceleration.

The target for the Planet Bora Bora had been Baffin. The small body would have become the home of the ELF, and the Free State of Fernando Poo. Upon its arrival in Baffin, even more barren and airless than before; it would have been regenerated by the amazing "Scrubbies", which had been discovered completely by accident in the very same system.

But less than a month ago, everything had changed. The pace of work picked up, even though the hopes of gaining Baffin as the ELF Homeland had dwindled, then evaporated. More and more components and fuel arrived, altho now by more devious and unobserved routes.

Two weeks ago, Bora Bora began to move. Trillions of ergs of thrust from the engines lit up the "thrust" side of the planet as if a thousand arcwelders had gone insane. Almost imperceptibly, the rotationless body began to move. It's resultant path would take it upwards, out of the plane of the ecliptic; avoiding most of the obstacles between it and its destination.. its target.

After one week, the planet had amazingly reached a velocity of 10 KPS, and was continuiing to accelerate at perhaps another kilometer per second each day. The cost had been enormous. Engines had exploded from the strain. Lives had been lost. The cost of supplying Deuteriium and H-fuel now included tricky orbital matching, and speed runs of a highly dangerous nature. (Ably handled by the IND lads under the direction of Jay himself.)

The destruction of 1st Flax.. the mysterious "death" of Pops Waverly, and the disappearance of FSFP staff, even the seeming "revolt" by the Fnordettes, had all been orchestrated in order to pursue this project to its conclusion...

A conclusion so much removed from the original mission plan that it had been held a closely guarded secret. the principles had gone into hiding, or donned other masks in order to distract interested parties from the purpose of the "new" mission.

Planet Bora Bora accelerated hourly, daily. Now, no longer a hoped-for haven. No longer a thing of life and dreams.

Planet Bora Bora would conclude its mission now as a thing of death. A missile of such proportions that even a more massive and powerful target would be rent asunder by its impact. A missile which had been programmed weeks ago for a specific destination. A destination which only assumed an intended target.

And now, there was a target. The invitation had been too appealing to turn down. Bora Bora appeared as a huge meteor against the relative dark above the galactic plane; streaking towards its final destination.

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