Planet Earth is blue 17

Speeding past Venus, we swung the missile once around the planet for extra acceleration. The Sun, huge now, glinted on the shining metal tail fins. Behind us, a flotilla of destroyers trailed in our wake – we were outstripping them easily and were already well out of range, although I think they were still firing. I looked across at Lily and saw grim satisfaction in her eyes.

The angeli had a profound stupidity that comes with arrogance. They must have known about the missile, made on Earth all those centuries ago; they must have known what it contained. However, having taken over, all they thought to do was plant their base on top of it, annihilating all within their reach but forgetting the remnants of the primitive earth folk who huddled in the caves beneath and gave them no trouble. Our intelligence had been bought dearly; all we could hope now was to avenge those deaths.

But the angeli weren’t completely clueless. As we drew level with Mercury’s orbit, we could see their main fleet assembling – initially mere specks against the blinding white disc ahead of us, but closing in fast. I felt Lily’s hand on mine and pressed it tightly.