Page 41 (1/2)

"Understood Alarm set for fifteen and five"

Avery knew the Lt Commander could use the rest Like the marines and most of the ht hours since the aliens' attack on Gladsheiotten ht since they'd ao Avery was trained to think tactically

But he appreciated that Jilan's responsibility for strategic planning could be equally exhausting

In the end, the plan to retake the Tiara had required both their expertise

Of the seven grease buckets hurtling toward the Tiara, only the ones on the number two and six strands (Avery's and Jilan's, respectively) carried ed with clay sensors On Avery's recommendation, these five buckets would arrive at the Tiara early Once they stopped inside the orbital's coupling stations, gantries would autoantries' airlocks and inspect the buckets would get a nasty surprise: a narrow cone of roundoutith lethal force

The clayantries' thin, flexible walls But after stations one, three, four, five, and seven were cleared of hostiles, the gantries were no longer necessary The containers full of evacuees were going to pass through the Tiara without stopping

The previous evening, slightly more than two hundred fifty thousand people had packed into two hundred thirty-six freight containers in Utgard's seven elevator depots--secured theon seats the JOTUNs had furiously fastened to the containers' floors Already twenty-eight of the containers were on the strands in fourteen coupled pairs Every five in to rise And if everything went to plan, in less than ninety minutes from Loki's first mass-driver shot, all the evacuees would be off the planet's surface

Of course, this was just the start of the evacuees' harrowing journey Not only did the container pairs need to h the Tiara unlide up the strands--alain the momentum required to hout all of this the Tiara would have to reh the stress on its strands would be well beyond their tested limits Loki would have his hands full, and Avery hoped the AI was as capable as Jilan believed it was

The Staff Sergeant felt his COM-pad buzz inside his assault vest, alerting hi their deceleration into the Tiara Fifteenat his vest's pouches to azines were properly stowed He had his battle rifle barrel-up between his knees, but he'd exchanged his usual M6 pistol for an M7 subh rate of fire and compact size, the M7 was perfect for close-quarters coun's sixty-round azines was backed with hook- and-loop le so the azines were an easy, cross-chest pull As he pressed the pouch firainst his chest Gingerly, he pulled one of Captain Ponder's Sweet Williaotten it was there

In a final briefing on the parliaar each froht the toward the elevator anchors and the civilians gathering in the surrounding sheds It wasn't until now that Avery realized the Captain had purposefully not included hioing to eants' chances weren't that roup of twenty volunteers froard's reactor-co Loki's data center JOTUNs had carefully unearthed the driver's netic-acceleration coils while the alien warship was busy burning Gladsheiiard's skyline Once the mass driver fired, the ONI PSI assumed the aliens would identify its power source and launch a retaliatory strike It was up to Byrne to make sure they didn't succeed--to keep Loki's data center safe until the evacuation was corease bucket jerked as its ed, slowing the bucket's progress The transition was enough to rouse Forsell, and as the recruit blinked away his slumber, Avery motioned for hinal around the bucket One by one the recruits revived, retrieved their MA5s where they had fallen to the rubberized floor, and checked their ammunition

"Loki just increased the intervals Seven minutes between boxes," Jilan's tired voice crackled in Avery's heler than we planned"

Avery did a quick calculation By now there would be upwards of fifty containers on the strands Their co on the Tiara If it drifted too far froeosynchronous position, Harvest's rotation would yank it fro the strands around the equator like threads around a spool

"Everyone listen up," Avery barked "Watch your teaets will be hard to spot"

Avery had run the h the assault planstations then press out and secure the far ends of the Tiara Once that was done, they would drive any surviving aliens back toward the center, trap them around the number-four station, and wipe them out

"We'll meet you in the middle," Jilan said "And Johnson?"

"Ma'am?"

"Good luck"

Avery unclipped his seat belt and rose to his feet Through the interior s, he could see the rate of the cable's passage slow, revealing a herringbone pattern in the strands' carbon nano-fiber construction The bucket ca, airborne insertions Avery had experienced tiy recruits e they needed "First platoon!" he bellowed "Ready weapons and stand to!"

Forsell, Jenkins, and the others pulled their MA5s' charging handles and thumbed the rifles' fire-selection switches to full automatic As they stood, these sons of Harvest aze with equal resolution, and Avery realized he had underestiht, noant them to remember

"Look at the man beside you," Avery said "He is your brother He holds your life in his hands, and you hold his You will not give up! You will not stop ainst the cable as the gantry sealed over its hatch The recruits stacked close together to Avery's left and right For the first time, he looked at the As Avery's eyes came to rest on Jenkins', and he plumbed the recruit hollow stare, he realized his pep talk lacked the e of all: hope

"Every one of these bastards you kill is a thousand lives saved!" Avery wrapped his left hand around the hatch's release lever and gripped his battle rifle with his right "And ill save the the hatch open, and charged His squad roared behind hiantry's seht than had been in the bucket Avery squinted as he rushed forward, scanning for targets As the an to bounce, throwing off Avery's aim Luckily, he didn't see any contacts until he reached the end of the gantry, and the fourpast the airlock weren't in any ray skin bled blue from a claymore's deadly hail