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“Onethe periiven the okay to let us in If someone escapes past us, no need to apprehend theet far”

“Thirty seconds”

“Get ready,” Bobbie said, then pulled up her HUD’s suit status display Everything was green, including the ammo indicator, which shoo thousand incendiary rounds

The air sucked out of the airlock in a long, fading hiss, leaving only a thin wisp of atmosphere that would be the same density as Io’s own faint haze of sulfur Before the ship hit the deck, Amos jumped up out of his chair and stood on his toes to put his helainst hers He yelled, “Give ’em hell, marine”

The outer airlock door slid open, and Bobbie’s suit blatted a radiation alarm at her It also helpfully informed her that the outside at life She shoved Amos toward the open lock and then pushed Prax after hiround in a weird, hopping run, his breath panting in her ears over the radio link Prax stayed close behind hiravity He had no trouble keeping up Bobbie cli arc that took her about seven meters above the surface at its apex She visually scanned the area while her suit reached out with radar and EM sensors, trying to pinpoint targets Neither she nor it found any

She hit the ground next to the lu them both to the airlock door She tapped the button and the outer door cycled open Of course Who locks their door on Io? No one is going to hike across a wasteland of molten silicon and sulfur to steal the fa for breath only once he was inside Bobbie followed Prax in a second later, and she was about to tell Amos to cycle the airlock when her radio died

She spun around, looking out across the surface of the moon for ainst her back armor When he yelled, it was barely audible “What is it?”

Instead of yelling back, she stepped outside the airlock and pointed to Amos, then pointed at the inner door She ers Amos nodded at her with one hand, then moved back into the airlock and shut the outer door

Whatever happened inside, it was up to Amos and Prax now She wished them well

She spotted the ainst the sulfurous yellow background So not quite the same color She tracked it with her eyes and had the suit hit it with a targeting laser She wouldn’t lose track of it now It obble radio waves, but the fact that she could see it ain Not quickly, and staying close to the ground If she hadn’t been looking right at it, she’d havesneaky Which probably e finderto her theory, once it realized it had been spotted, it would charge her, rab and rip If it couldn’t reach her quickly, it would try to throw things at her And all she needed to do was hurt it until its program failed and it self-destructed Lots of theories

Tiun at it The suit helped her correct for deflection based on the range, but she was using ultrahigh velocity rounds on a ravity Bullet drop at three hundred h there was no way the creature could see it through her helmet’s darkened visor, she blew it a kiss “I’m back, sweetie Come say hi to momma”