Chapter Eighteen

 

Firebase Ghia

Pariton District

Markov’s Prize

 

L-Day plus 66

 

            Tahl lay back on his bunk and stared up at the ceiling of his room, taking in every detail of the sterile, white syncast plates as his mind raced over the last few weeks. He had badly wanted to believe the commander-in-chief’s speech at the town hall, that the Ghar were on their last legs and that this would soon be over. Tahl had not seen a shred of evidence to support any hypothesis other than that of the Ghar being dug in and set for the long haul, prepared to fight long and hard to take Markov’s Prize and then leap to the next world for plunder. But even if and when the Concord were successful, then what? Onto the next planet, and the next after that. Assuming he survived, the day would come when he could go home, but there was no home to go to. A father who had disowned him and a mother who barely tolerated him.

            “You’re looking thoughtful,” Rhona said from where she lay with her head on his shoulder. “D’you ever just declutch that brain and coast, instead of thinking all the time?”

            Tahl looked across at her and shrugged in apology. Only the bed sheet which lay across them clothed them both, and it was nearly dawn up in the world above.

            “Just glad the ceiling isn’t shaking with enemy artillery for once,” Tahl said as he looked up again. “You know, because of our overreliance on technology, they can find our bases and bombard us easier than…”

            Rhona lay back and ran her hands over her body.

            “Oh, tell me more about artillery strike coordination, sir, it gets me so hot!”

            “I’m sorry,” Tahl smiled, “I shouldn’t be talking about anything related to work.”

            “It’s not for me, it’s for you,” Rhona propped her head up on one hand next to him. “I just think you need to chill out more. I guess I just wonder what you’ll do when this is all over.”

            “I was just wondering the same thing,” Tahl admitted.

            He momentarily considered asking her about what their future was but pushed the thought away almost instantly. He knew what this was – a casual, physical fling between two single people to act as a distraction from the terrible situations they faced every day. He needed to be grateful for what he had, no matter how fleeting it was.

            “What’ll you do when you can go home?”

            “I only think one day ahead!” Rhona smiled slyly.

            “Why?”

            Her smile faded away.

            “It gets me down,” she admitted. “I don’t wanna get all serious, but I haven’t really planned surviving my military service.”

            “Why not?” Tahl sat up.

            “Just… people like you make it to the end of movies. Not people like me.”

            “Real life is very different, though,” Tahl said, confused at the analogy. “You’ve got to go into this all with some optimism.”

            “It’s not pessimism, it’s just… acceptance,” Rhona shrugged, “and I’m cool with it. I’ve made my peace.”

            “What about your brother back home?” Tahl said.

            “He’s only just talking to me again. We kinda fell out. It was my fault. Yeah, definitely my fault.”

            “What happened?” Tahl asked.

            “Doesn’t matter,” Rhona winced, “you wouldn’t wanna hear. Jeez… I can’t win this. If I don’t tell you then it seems like I don’t want to talk to you, but if I do tell you…”

            “You don’t have to tell me,” Tahl smiled, “I know what this is between us. You don’t owe me anything, you don’t have to talk to me about personal things. I’m not putting pressure on you.”

            “You see, that’s exactly the problem. You think you know me, but you don’t. You think you know what goes on inside my head because you judge me based on the persona I project, but that projection is a lie. A front. I never told you that what’s going on between us is meaningless to me, you just assumed it. You just assumed I’ll finish with you and move on to the next guy.”

            “Okay,” Tahl conceded, “tell me what happened between you and your brother.”

            Rhona’s face dropped.

            “Aw… crap,” she sighed, “this is literally the worst personal anecdote I have to prove my point. Okay, I’d just qualified as a strike trooper and I had a couple of weeks leave before shipping out. I went to spend my time with my brother at his college. I spent two weeks drinking and partying, and I slept with two of his best friends. They both found out, they had a big fight over me, and it all got very messy.”

            “And here was me thinking you were a nun,” Tahl risked a smile.

            “You’re not making this easy for me. Look, I made a big mistake and I learned from it. I learned that what was acceptable behavior back where I’m from is not acceptable here. That was, like, a year ago, and you’re my first guy since. The point is, you’ve assumed this means nothing to me.”

            “Isn’t that better for you?” Tahl lay back down again and looked back at the ceiling. “Doesn’t it put less pressure on…”

            “Stop with the pressure!” Rhona interrupted, her voice sounding hurt and serious for the first time. “Let me decide what I want to do! You’re trying to be open minded and accepting of my culture’s customs when you really don’t have to. Yeah, people are a lot more open about sex where I’m from but that hardly means I can’t control myself! Where you’re from, a physical relationship is something special between two people that means something. I get that. I respect it. It’s something I’m pretty sure I’m capable of doing.”

            “I don’t get what you’re saying,” Tahl sat up again. “You’re saying that this isn’t just a casual fling and this means something to you?”

            “Yes!” Rhona exclaimed. “Jeez, you’re as bad as that mandarin sometimes! Look, I’ve never done the whole relationship deal before, but you’re the first person I’ve ever met that makes me want to try.”

            “Why?”

            “Because! You’re just looking for compliments now,” Rhona sat up on the edge of the bunk and turned her back on him, folding her arms. “Because… you got dragged away from the life you were supposed to have, and now you’re all alone. You never complain about it, you just get on and do it. You’re the only person I’ve ever met who I think can really understand what it’s like to feel straight out of luck and that every road you take ends up further from the life you were supposed to have. You’re the only guy I’ve met who I can relate to.”

            Tahl sat behind her and embraced her for a few moments until she pried herself away and recovered her clothes from the floor.

            “We’re out of time,” Rhona said as she pulled her uniform on, her back still to him. “I gotta go get my squad together. We’re moving out in less than an hour.”

            “Right,” Tahl nodded, at a loss for words.

            Rhona finished dressing herself by pulling on her boots and tying her hair back into a ponytail before turning to face him. He could see that she had been crying.

            “I’ve got to go get suited up,” she said coolly, her even voice in direct contrast to her tear glistening eyes. “Just… stop second guessing me, okay? I know your customs, I’m not going to go upsetting you by screwing around with other guys. Just show some trust in me. Maybe forever will work out, I don’t know. The odds are stacked against us. But let’s at least try.”

            By the time Tahl had mentally worded his apology and how to tell her that he felt the same, she had already gone.

 

***

 

            “One of the other guys,” Sessetti told Rechter and Losse as he ran his diagnostic tool over the armored plates of his suit, “told me to always go for the most obvious parts to look for damage. The maintenance drones are programmed to spend longer searching out the cracks and internals, not the surfaces.”

            Eager to learn, Rechter ran his own diagnostics tool over the plates of his armor as Sessetti showed him. The three sat down in the center of the communal area, clad in their body gloves as they carried out last minute checks on their arms and armor.

            “If you’re not ready by now, you never will be,” Clythe said dismissively from where he lay on his bunk. “You’d be wiser spending your time chilling out rather than getting worked up over nothing.”

            “You’d be wiser spending your time getting the latest updates from the Formation Intelligence Cell,” Meibal added from where she sat on the edge of her bunk with a datapad. “There are updates coming in all of the time.”

            “Let me guess,” Varlton offered from where he stood in the corner of the room by the food dispenser, “capital city full of Ghar, MAA, and Freeborn? One of them has attacked the other and exchanged marginal territorial gains for a few casualties? Same thing we’re about to go do?”

            “You heard the commander-in-chief,” Meibal replied, “this is the last big push. We’re right at the end.”

            Varlton laughed and let out a low groan.

            “Oh, jeez! Every commander in every army, since the first poor sods fixed bayonets to the end of their guns in some mudhole thousands of years ago have been spinning that ridiculous lie!”

            “Diette also said you could be a commander-in-chief someday, so we know he’s a liar,” Clythe offered.

            “Ignore him, Mabe,” Sessetti smiled to Meibal, “you do whatever you think is best to prepare yourself. Reading intelligence reports sounds as good an idea as any to me.”

            The door to the communal area opened and Rhona rushed through, still clad in her barrack uniform.

            “Morning, dudes,” she smiled, “ready to go win the war?”

            “Where’ve you been?” Varlton asked. “We’re supposed to be at five minutes’ notice!”

            “I’m a bit behind schedule because I spent I spent a night of passion with my secret lover,” Rhona winked as she pulled off her shirt.

            “Yeah, funny,” Varlton grimaced. “Come on and get ready. We’ll get the call to saddle up any second now.”

            “Preferably within the confines of your own cubicle,” Meibal added. “I don’t want to see you prancing around in your underwear, again.”

            “I kind of have to,” Rhona shrugged, “as part of my duties as squad leader, morale is top of the agenda. These guys are about to go into combat, so showing them some leg is the least I can do.”

            “What’s the most?” Varlton asked.

            “Yeah,” Losse piped up, “jokes about your secret lover aside, are you single?”

            Rechter looked across at Losse.

            “That’s pretty direct,” he commented.

            Rhona smirked as she took her body glove from its stowage and quickly inspected it for damage.

            “No, I’ve got a guy,” she said after a pause.

            “What?” Clythe sat up on his bunk. “You’ve never mentioned that before! Why’d you never say anything?”

            “It’s personal,” Rhona said as she pulled on her body glove and fitted her breastplate over her torso, “I like to keep some things to myself.”

            “Says the woman who spends ninety quantum of her time in her underwear surrounded by hormonal men,” Meibal muttered.

            “Jeez, what is it with women in this squad?” Rhona shook her head as she fitted her leg plates. “First Rae, then Jem, now you. I ain’t apologizing for being this hot, girl. None of the guys ever complain. Just get over it and move on.”

            “Stop changing the subject,” Varlton said. “Who’s this guy of yours?”

            Rhona looked down and paused, tapping one of her shoulder plates absentmindedly against one hand before smiling softly and fitting it.

            “He’s about my age,” she answered, “he’s taller than me, he’s tough when he needs to be, and soft the rest of the time. And we nearly understand each other. Nearly. We’re getting there.”

            The room fell silent for a few moments.

            “I’m glad for you, Kat,” Varlton smiled, tapping her on the shoulder.

            “Maybe tell us what’s going on next time,” Clythe suggested. “There’s enough secrecy going on around here as it is.”

            Sessetti stood up and let out a sigh.

            “Oh, change the track, would you? I’m sick of hearing this same song now.”

            Clythe leapt off his bunk and paced out to stand in front of Sessetti.

            “At least the song from me is consistent,” he growled. “You just lead people on and then drop them with no warning! Out of the blue!”

            “I don’t have to answer to you!” Sessetti snapped. “I’ll do what the hell I want!”

            “That’s you through and through, isn’t it? You selfish prick!” Clythe shouted, shoving Sessetti in the chest.

            Sessetti’s fist lashed out and connected with Clythe’s jaw, snapping his head and sending him reeling. With a chorus of shouts, Varlton and Rhona leapt forward and stood in between the two.

            “You two, pack that in!” Rhona yelled, shoving both soldiers apart. “What the hell is this all about?”

            “It’s about that dumb bastard insisting on clinging on my coat tails for the rest of his life!” Sessetti shouted.

            Clythe sank back on his bunk and hung his head, blood dripping from his split lip.

            “Lian, sit down and shut up!” Rhona bellowed. “You wait right there! Don’t go anywhere!”

            Rhona walked into Clythe’s cubicle and shut the door behind them.

 

***

 

            Clythe had never looked so pathetic to Rhona. She folded her arms and looked down at where he sat silently, unable to look up and meet her piercing stare.

            “Go on. Explain that crap away.”

            Clythe let out a long sigh.

            “All my life,” he began, “I’ve been in his shadow. His parents were more popular than mine, he did better at school, he did better at sports, everything. He was the cool one who the girls liked, I was the loud mouthed, lippy friend. He’s right, I’ve spent my whole life clinging to his coat tails. This band was everything to me. I’m not dumb, I know we’re never going to be famous. But it made me happy. Playing music made me happy, and he’s like a brother to me. The whole point in us invading other poor bastards’ planets is to get them onboard with the IMTel so they can do what they want. What about me? All I want to do is be in a band and play music. I’m not asking much! I want to tour places with my friends, see different worlds, give strangers a great night out when they come to see us. But instead I’m stuck here in the military in a war against some huge bastard metal suits, fighting for a planet whose people hate us. And I’ve got a bad feeling about this next one. I’ve lucked in so far, but you know, I think it’s my turn now. And… this wasn’t what was supposed to happen.”

            Rhona exhaled slowly before sitting down next to him. She put an arm around his shoulders and pulled his head against her neck, like she used to do with her little brother.

            “You’ll be okay, dude,” she said gently. “I don’t think you’ve run out of luck. You know what I think? I think we’re owed some good luck after the last few weeks. I think that poor old Gant, Jem, and Qan used up our bad luck for us, and now we’ll be okay. I also think that if we were back home, all sat together with drinks and looking up at the stars, this wouldn’t be so bad. We’re about to go into combat again and the whole world seems bad. I feel the same way too. I feel sick, I’m so scared, despite what the suit is pumping into me to stop it. But dude, you don’t need Lian as a crutch. You’re your own guy. You’re not his shadow. Let him chase his plan here, and you go home and chase your dream. If he isn’t the right guy to share it with, you go find the right people and make your own band. You’ve got two hundred years to get it right. So see your part in this dumb war through, and then leave it behind.”

            Clythe remained silent, dabbing at his lip from time to time.

            “You okay?” Rhona asked after a long silence.

            “Yeah, I’m good, big sis,” Clythe stood up slowly. “Thanks. I mean it. I’m not going to fix anything now, so I might as well just face what’s ahead of me. I’ll come up with a plan when we get back, I guess.”

            Rhona stood up and forced a smile for him, despite the fear and hollowness inside. There was so much left unresolved in her mind and at best, the next few days would force her to leave it all remaining unresolved. At worst, she would be killed. Rhona opened the door back to the communal area and gestured for Clythe to go out first.

            “Get out of here, you bonehead,” she sighed, clipping him around the back of his head as he walked past, before she then pointed to Sessetti.

            “C’mon, you idiot, get in here. You’re next.”

            Before Sessetti could move, Van Noor’s voice came through the shard.

            “Beta Company, assemble in the embarkation area.”

            “Guess it’ll have to wait,” Rhona said, slinging her carbine over her shoulder and taking her helmet from the shelf next to her cubicle. “Let’s go do this.”

 

***

 

Pariton City Center

Capital City

Markov’s Prize

 

L-Day plus 67

 

            The entrance to the enemy complex lay only a few dozen yan ahead, partially hidden amid the rubble. A subterranean transport tube – a clear favorite method of travel for the MAA – emerged from the ground, half-buried in grey bricks and twisted metal support rods from felled buildings. The entrance had been detected by a spotter drone which had stealthily followed an MAA patrol in the early evening; the soldiers were tired from days of continuous fighting, no doubt, which explained their lax approach to security. Owenne had already planned on waiting until nightfall to advance, so as to take advantage of the enemy’s inferior night vision devices; however, the discovery of a way into an MAA defensive complex was now an opportunity which could not be missed.

            The four Dukes – all that was required to transport what was left of Beta Company – moved rapidly over the uneven ground, flanked by a pair of escorting C3M4 combat drones. The big M4s swept their searchlights across the ground ahead to search for any enemy troops who remained undetected by scanners, the drones’ searchlights set to a visual spectrum which could only be detected by Concord forces who were tuned into it so they remained invisible to the enemy.

            “Ten seconds,” Tahl said, unstrapping from his seat and moving to stand by the door.

            Even with his facemask down, Tahl could tell that Van Noor was frowning at him. The procedure was to remain safely and securely seated until the vehicle came to a stop, as the final few yan was when an enemy attack was most likely to occur. Tahl ignored the procedure – he wanted to be first out of the door. The seven troopers of Strike Leader Rall’s Squad Jai were ready behind him. Tahl connected to the Duke’s external sensors and checked around the vehicles as they covered the final few yan – still no sign of the enemy. The lead transport drone came to a stop by the tunnel entrance, quickly sank down to the ground with a jolt and opened its doors.

            “On me,” Tahl commanded, jumping down to the ground and dashing through the tunnel entrance with his carbine raised, Van Noor and Squad Jai following behind. Tahl sent a mental command to Squad Jai’s spotter drone and ordered the machine to scout ahead through the tunnel as he set up waypoints for his other three squads. Within seconds, the spotter drone was reporting enemy activity ahead. Tahl relayed the information to his strike leaders and began a jog down the tunnel at the head of Squad Jai. Around a bend was another of the transport stations, similar to the one he had confronted the MAA patrol in during Owenne’s last nocturnal jaunt. Tahl stopped at a gentle corner in the tunnel. The spotter drone had detected a squad of ten enemy soldiers taking cover in the ruined station ahead. There was no need to speak to his soldiers – a simple string of mental commands via the shard gave them all the instructions they required.

            Tahl and Van Noor sprinted around the corner and broke off to the left as Rall and half of his squad dashed off to the right, his remaining troopers dropping to the ground where the tunnel opened out into the station. The boom and hiss of mag gun fire met the Concord troopers as they moved, echoing around the cavernous station. Immediately, the strike troopers still in the tunnel returned fire, sending lines of boiling blue plasma back at the MAA soldiers who hid in piles of rubble or behind the square, brick buildings on top of the station’s platforms.

            Tahl took cover behind the burnt out remains of an archaic monorail train which sat in a twisted heap in the corner of the station. Van Noor was close behind him, jumping for cover as projectiles slammed into the metal around them. The spotter drone reported another force of MAA soldiers moving to bolster the defending squad – another twenty men, signifying the rest of their unit.

            “Command, Squad Denne,” Vias transmitted from where Tahl had positioned his squad by the transport drones. “We’ve got a unit of soldiers heading toward us from the northeast, about thirty guys.”

            “Got it,” Tahl replied. “Squad Wen, double back and dig in next to Denne to defend the disembarkation site.”

            “Copied, Boss,” Rhona replied.

            Tahl brought his attention back to the firefight in the station. Rall had advanced with three of his troopers along the right hand side, gunning down two of the MAA soldiers as they tried to fall back. Tahl would normally be content to exploit his force’s superior armor and firepower by digging in for a prolonged exchange of fire, but the MAA reinforcements were only moments away; and now that they had been equipped with far more potent mag guns by their Freeborn allies, he needed to execute a rapid and aggressive attack to wipe out the first enemy squad before the next arrived. With Rall on the right and supporting fire from the tunnel entrance, he set two new waypoints for flanking attacks.

            “Let’s go, mate,” he breathed to Van Noor, jumping back to his feet and sprinting along the left of the station as a torrent of plasma fire swept through the air from behind him in an attempt to suppress the MAA defenders.

            The spotter drone had highlighted three enemy soldiers taking cover inside one of the platform waiting rooms up ahead; plasma fire from the tunnel entrance smashed through the building, punching holes in the brick walls and creating a cloud of dust from the shattered masonry. With clinical precision, the supporting fire ceased as soon as Tahl and Van Noor were within a few paces of the building. Tahl was first through the doorway; he found one man dead at his feet and the remaining two staggering up to face him in the cloud of dust. With his carbine still set to single fire, Tahl raised the weapon and shot both men in the chest. With the room clear and some cover secured for his men, Tahl sent another waypoint through the shard to order Squad Teal to catch up with him and take up a firing position in the small building.

            “Get down!” Van Noor snapped.

            Tahl dived to the floor as Van Noor took cover by the doorway, leaning against it and firing a steady stream of plasma into the far end of the station as a squad of MAA reinforcements swept out of another tunnel, firing at the Concord troopers as they advanced. Projectiles buzzed through the air above Tahl’s head, and he saw Van Noor’s hyperlight shields flash in response to accurate fire, forcing the senior strike leader to fall back from the doorway and take cover. Moments later, Yavn and his six troopers from Squad Teal arrived next to them, taking up positions by the doorway and windows to return fire.

            Tahl quickly patched in to the shards of Squad Wen and Denne. They were aggressively exchanging fire with the second MAA unit which was approaching the disembarkation point, but the combined fire of the Duke drones and the two squads had already accounted for over ten enemy soldiers. It was not a completely one sided exchange – both Vias and Rhona had each lost one of their troopers to enemy fire. A burst of mag fire caught one of the strike troopers by the doorway, puncturing his armor in the legs and gut and sending him clattering to the ground with a scream of pain. Tahl ran across and dragged the bleeding soldier away from the doorway before quickly setting about administering first aid.

            “I’ve got him sorted, Boss!” Van Noor shouted as he knelt down next to Tahl and the wounded man. “You lead the company, I’ll sort Weyne out!”

            Tahl patched back into Jai’s spotter drone to update his tactical picture. Twenty MAA soldiers had pushed through the tunnel, and one squad had taken position in the station whilst the second was providing covering fire from behind. Tahl assigned the spotter drone back to Squad Jai and sent a targeting feed to Rall’s plasma lance gunner, ordering him to fire at the tunnel entrance whilst Squad Teal’s lance did the same. Both weapons fired a continuous beam of superheated plasma at the tunnel, cutting into the roof and ripping the structure apart. Rocks ploughed down from the already unstable tunnel, crushing several of the MAA soldiers and cutting off the remainder of the squad, leaving only the ten in the station to deal with.

            “Squad Teal,” Tahl commanded the surrounding soldiers, “enemy soldiers at my marker! Rapid fire!”

            Tahl took position by one of the shattered windows and fired short but rapid bursts from his carbine into the concentration of MAA soldiers which had taken cover by the next platform along. Plasma fire and mag fire were exchanged between the two squads as Rall continued his charge up the right hand side of the station, outflanking the last MAA soldiers and setting up to catch them in a withering crossfire. Caught between the two squads of strike troopers, half a dozen of the enemy soldiers were killed before the handful of survivors broke and fled down another of the transport tunnels.

            The subterranean battlefield fell silent. Tahl quickly patched back into Wen and Denne, and thankfully found that the firefight outside the tunnels had been a similar success. Tahl slowly stood and dragged off his helmet to take in a lungful of air. Behind him, Van Noor had stabilized the wounded trooper.

            “Tahl, you’ve stopped,” Owenne’s voice spoke through the shard. “Have you taken the station?”

            “Affirm, we’ve beaten back two groups of MAA infantry. Estimate we eliminated about half of each unit before they ran. Station is secure, we’ve punched a hole through their lines.”

            “Good,” Owenne said. “Good. How many casualties have you taken?”

            Tahl quickly checked his soldiers’ readouts via the company shard.

            “Four dead, five wounded. Two seriously.”

            “Good,” Owenne said again, “that won’t slow you down at all. Keep going, Killer. I need you to punch a hole straight through to the archive building.”

            “And the Ghar?” Tahl countered, expending more than a little effort to ignore Owenne’s disregard for the impact of his dead soldiers. “We’ve done the easy bit, smashing through the MAA line. What about when the Ghar move in from the east?”

            “I’ve got five companies from the 61^st Strike Formation already engaged with the Ghar,” Owenne responded. “I’m keeping them off you. You’ve got the soft underbelly of the city so you can clear a path to that building. You let me worry about the rest.”

            “Copied.”

            “Boss!” a trooper from Squad Teal called. “One of these guys is still alive! Just about!”

            “Go sort him out,” Tahl nodded to Rall, who turned to jog quickly over to the wounded enemy soldier.

            “By ‘sort him out’, I mean that you are to provide medical aid and stabilize him for evacuation,” Tahl called after Rall to dispel any potential for confusion.

            “I know, Boss!” Rall replied. “What did you think I was going to do?”    

            Tahl turned to look across at his other strike leaders. Van Noor and Yavn stood waiting for his orders.

            “Get the dead and wounded into the Dukes as quickly as you can. We’re moving again the instant the wounded are on their way out of here.”

 

***

 

            Jumping involuntarily with every blast from the x-howitzer battery behind him, Owenne clasped his hands at the small of his back and stared out to the east. The horizon was broken with the skeletal remains of buildings, terrain which his strike troopers were fighting their way through even as he waited. He was so close to his prize now, he felt as if he could practically walk right up to the building and peruse the archives as if inside an old fashioned library. The guns spoke again, sending another salvo of shells toward the Ghar reinforcements which were moving up to attack the 48^th Strike Formation on the right flank of the Concord advance.

            “Mandarin Owenne,” Mandarin Luffe’s voice chimed in his head, “news from the second of the Ghar reinforcement battlefleets. The Ghar invasion force at Banaab was annihilated by naval bombardment. Banaab is now secure. There was a naval encounter of significant size in high orbit and we sustained some losses. Mandarin Narik was amongst them.”

            “Good,” Owenne replied. “Good that Bannab is secure and good that Narik has finally got his hands dirty. One assumes they recovered his body and he will successfully regen?”

            “That is correct.”

            “Then assuming the surgical procedure is a success, I shall look forward to ridiculing him for not taking better care of himself,” Owenne smiled. “And the other Ghar battlefleet? What news?”

            “It will be entering the Zolus System imminently, I estimate it will be at Markov’s Prize in three days.”

            “Three days? Why the devil are you wasting time and resources in Banaab when I need help here! I’m practically within walking distance of the best lead I have ever found for Embryo, and you’re telling me that even if I am successful in punching through the Ghar, MAA, and sodding Freeborn lines, there’s another entire army of little monster bastards in tin cans on their way here? Send me a couple of dreadnaughts and a carrier or two! Stop arseing around in backwater systems and come and help here!”

            “Your lack of emotional control does you no credit, you must…”

            “Are you sending reinforcements, woman? Yes or no?” Owenne demanded.

            “Negative.”

            “Then sod off and stop wasting my time!”

            Owenne severed the connection and swore in his rage. He needed Tahl and Van Noor to open up a path to the archives. And he was running out of time.