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“Understood, sir,” she said

“Back on watch,” Holden said, keeping his voice as gentle as possible

She walked back to the edge of the platform Juarez watched without comment After a respectful et the door open, but without any success Blowing the elevator ht you two a couple ht you”

“We’ll try to make the most of them,” the other marine said with a half smile Juarez chuckled and slapped her on the back

“So this is our final defensive position, then Good cover and field of fire If I get lucky maybe I can crack another ht corner, Corin can keep the left, and I’ll set up here in the center Holden can rove and back up whichever side is taking the ree, sir”

“I agree,” Holden said “In fact, I’ to be trying to help Naoet in trouble”

Juarez kicked off hisHe straightened out, his long rifle pointed over his head, straight down the shaft From Holden’s perspective he looked like a particularly well-ar from the roof

“Movement,” he said almost iot through the barrier fast”

“Looks like they’re not quite through, but the wall is bulging like they’re beating their way through it”

“I have an idea,” Naoe of the platform, then out onto the wall and over to the opposite side of the elevator shaft

“Where are you going?” Holden asked

“Panel,” was her only answer before she popped an access hatch off the elevator shaft bulkhead and clih that she completely disappeared Holden didn’t think there would be anything in there that could help theet the airlock door open, but he didn’t care Naoht not bother to look for her They probably didn’t have good intel on who had engaged in the assault on engineering

“Here they coh his telescopic sight “Two left” His muzzle flashed once “Shit, no hit” It flashed twice le fire, carefully aiuys were just under a kilometer away Holden didn’t think he’d be able to hit a stationary transport shuttle at that range,spent some ti the shots, it was because she thought she had a chance to score hits He wasn’t about to argue with her

“Eight hundred meters,” Juarez said, his voice no different than if he’d been giving a stranger the tiain

Cass fired off the last of her azine, then replaced it in one sazines off his own bandolier and left the next to her left elbow She nodded her thanks without pausing in her firing Juarez fired twicedown the scope, calling out ranges for Cass When he hit five hundredas well

It was all very brave, Holden thought None of theave up, no matter the odds But it was also sort of pointless Juarez had the only gun that was even remotely a threat to troops in state-of-the-art recon armor, and he’d fired it dry and only scored one kill So they’d throw a lot of bullets at the approaching enemy because that’s what people like them did, even when there was no chance But in the end, Ashford would win If he wasn’t so emotionally drained, Holden would have been pissed

The LEDs in the elevator shaft caht The two soldiers wearing their stolen power ar up the corridor toward them Before he’d had time to wonder why the poas back on, there was a thud that Holden could feel through his feet A large section of the elevator bulkhead slid open The backup elevator slowly moved out into the shaft on hydraulic arhts flashed on the elevator’s control panel as its systeht on the panel flashed red three tih speed