“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” - Arthur C. Clarke

Zach is taken to the Drone Operations Center, or otherwise known as the Thunderdome. It is filled with control stations. They were different from the ones in Crystal Palace since they looked like they were designed for the Interceptors exclusively. The rest of the group have been practicing when Zach walked in.

Zach was introduced to his father’s best friends, Major Shin Hashimoto and Major Graham Fogg. Major Shin had a Japanese flag instead of the United States of America one. His call sign is MaxJenius. Major Fogg had a thick British accent. He also a union flag instead of the United States of America one, and the defense was misspelled. His call sign is officially Withnailed, but they call him Limes.

Zach’s father and his friends play dungeons and dragons about five days a week to pass the time. The leaderboard had them in the top three, with Shin and Graham Alternating between the second and third place with RedJive always being in first. They also created a band called, “The Bishop of Battle”.

When they came with the shipment, it also includes all of their favorite foods. EDA keeps track of eating habits, pulse rate, blood pressure, sweat content, etc. When they were playing their favorite games.

No one else on the Moon Base Alpha, after they created the QComm network. Now everything is done remotely, but they still need people just in case something happens to Earth that shut down the drones because the moon ones would still be operational.

They were debriefed that the icebreaker was real and was destroyed. They were also told that there is a second hidden one. It should be operational after the second wave. The moon is always attacked every 390 days (almost annual) because it when Europa is at the point closest to Earth. They have been attacking since September 1988, when the Moon Base was built. Each attack is bigger than the last.

The Disrupter was used in the latest attack. That is the thing from the Armada game that everyone hated because there was no way of destroying it. It latches on a celestial body (like the Moon or Earth) then uses the magnetic field to create a spherical field that disrupts all quantum communications inside. It only works when both the transmitter and receiver are inside. If it is outside it is completely unaffected. It allows the Europan to keep attacking, leaving the Earth without defense. So it they use it on the Moon, Earth drones can be sent and used, and vice versa. Drones can still work inside the field if they are tether by cables. It only gives a 3-second shield regeneration, so it goes from 0% to 100% in three minutes. The Disrupter is nearly Indestructible. It is estimated that each wave will have a Disrupter.

Only very one Disrupter was ever destroyed, and they showed it to the group. Admiral Viper was the commander of the Moon Base Alpha at the time. He climbed into a mech and was going to self-destructed. Zach’s father climbed into a mech and connected it to another mech. He was controlling two mechs at once. He was able to rip out the Viper the self-destruction started without stopping the sequence. He then proceeded to run the Viper towards the base. He throws also throws the self-destruction mech into the Disrupter. He started the sequence on the other mech, detached it, and threw it at the Disrupter. He did this in the three-second window. They both rushed inside at the end of the video clip.

They nicked name the Disrupter “A Black Betty” because that was the song that Zach’s father was listing to while saving everyone’s life. A Disrupter also looks like a ten-sided dice, so it is also called “ten-sider”.

Shortly after the debriefing, they start to head towards a five-gourmet meal dinner. Zach, however, doesn’t want it to be his last dinner. Instead, he wants his mom’s homecooked meal to be his lasted.