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"Your legs?" Sevro asks frantically

They pull the rocks off roan and electrical components whir

"Still work"

We descend the snowy ed Martian plains A mass of heavy infantry like us moves to our left Their transponders label theht, about thirty kilohlands, a Bellona column skips forward--maybe three hundred in separate parties

"Cracked one of our cos," a Green conal "They’re hunting you, Icarus" My secondary call sign

"Here’s e learn who is winning the heavens," I say Sevro directs a tracking laser on the eneround in front of us like a frantic fly We scatter, Sevro and I flying away together, and then a rain of fire descends on our enemy from two trajectories At the sa cluster un from nearby Thessalonica fires a projectile that leaves a streak of blue fire across the horizon The drone disappears in a blossom of red This is the ’s coordinates, sensors and eyes peeled for the death that hides in the mountains It stalks the plains It secrets itself in woods of towering godTrees and in the waters of the infant seas

A great lake stretches far to our left, while a dorradual in its incline that it seeht I soar higher along the spine of the e over the surroundings Periodic topographical data flickers onto my datapad as drones broadcast data, are shot from the sky, then replaced

It is quiet inside my suit I cannot hear the wind that whistles around ht A stormcloud, one of Mars’s dramatic thunderheads, rolls in from the distant lake When it hits the forest below theslashes the sky Atop the craggy peak, snoirls, ainst my suit

I catchmy weapon when I see it’s no Bellona, but a carved beast I e of a huge nest set into a narrow stone defile atop the peak, watching in wonder as men fly across her valley below What a world these Golds have built

Mya moment to check the powercells in our starShells They won’t last all day Mustang’s group sla snow to scatter as four hundred starShelled killers add their strength to ours She bumps fists with me

"Icarus?" a voice crackles in my ear "Icarus, do you read ent … on … readslashes overhead Ja devices from both sides already ea"

"Roque? Roque?" I know the plan for the battle above, but the tone of his voice worries

"Local frequencies are fine It’s the jammers and storm" Rain splatters over her faceplate