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He didn’t have one He unloaded his pistol’s clip with one hand, driving the mech backward across the deck with the other One of the MartianSmall white marks appeared on the breastplate of the nearest attacker, like a child’s thumbprints on aThe man in powered armor reached the nearest workstation, ripped the crash couch out of the decking with one hand, and threw it like a h the air and shattered against the bulkhead where it hit If there had been anyone in its path, it would have been worse than a bullet

Bull kept backing up When his clip ran out, he gave his full attention to driving the mech The last of the attackers out of the shaft tried to leap across the room, but the armor’s amplification made it more like a launch The red-and-black blur careened off the far ith a sound like a car wreck

“And that,” Sergeant Verbinski said across the radio, “is e spend six s” He sounded a coht, but the basic rule stayed the same Hold territory, stay behind cover, have someone there to keep the other side busy when you had to move The proble that would dae their opponents The best they could do was ive in to their reflexive caution It wouldn’t win the war Hell, it would barely postpone losing the battle

“Nao back there?”

“I can duive me three more minutes,” she said He could hear the focus and drive in her voice The deter to happen,” he said

“Just… just hold on”

“They’re coodda we can do to stop therasshoppers,off bits of the bulkhead where they scraped against it At this point, their best hope was that the eneainst the walls Bull pulled back toward the entryway to the dru at the eneet the eneht be able to close down the transition point and ive Naomi the minutes she needed

The people in power arht a desk, the steel bending in the suit’s glove, and started pulling hand over hand toward the reactor controls

“Can anybody stop that guy?” Bull asked No one on the frequency answered He sighed “Naorid too Just a few more minutes”

“You don’t have thes cool down”

“But—”

“You’re no good to anyone dead,” he said The channel went quiet, and for a long ht, been killed Then she caood ar fins The nearest of the people in power suits grabbed at her, but she was already gone, and they were too ti after her

Bull saw another of the enelove was too thick to fit through the weapon’s trigger guard As Bull watched, the eneun in its fist, like a child’s toy carried by a large man Bull fired at it a few e

Four Earthers shouted with one voice and launched theun The attacker didn’t fire Just swept one bigBull’s people like they were sparrows

His people were going to get killed—were getting killed—and there was nothing he could do to stop it

“Okay kids,” he said “Let’s pack up and go ho too hot in here”