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“Hazard bedlapoints are solid, but there’s shuttles down all over the city We got half the pack looking for you Been sending out tea the wounded back here” He nods to the wounded at the far side of the market as the rest of the Howlers form a semicircle around me For a h of their number only Screwface still has the stink of dead horse about him Not for the first time, I’m thankful for o out

“The city is lost But looks like the EMP hit orbit too,” I tell thehts are back online The fact that the skies are ee She’ll have to bring her other ships from picket or far-side to send armor, but once it coaet as many men out of the city and into the s those ships around We have far less than an hour”

I sketch a quick les for ar conventional weapons They crouch to see it better in the gloom I draw a circle for the Hippodrome to the northeast

“Lysander knew the EMP range If he were practical, he’d hold for reinforcelory He’ll try to take the city while Atalantia is knocked out He landed here” I draw a rectangle to the south for the Water Plaza “The POWs were held here” I draw an X west of the Hippodrome, north of us “Soon we’ll have several hundred thousand veteran troops pouring south with unknown armaments” I mark several circles five kilometers south of the Hippodrome, two south of us “These are our support barracks and administrative offices They have not yet been evacuated I’ve sent runners to tell them tofor the ineers, orderlies Those prisoners are Iron Leopards and XX Fulhest sons of bitches in the Core With no tech, those Obsidians and Golds will be murder machines We will not let theet their backs

“Six main boulevards lead south We will barricade them and hold the line here” I draw a line across the sand south of the Water Plaza X On that line, what remains of my infantry in the city will die to buy the rest tirenades, but only enough for one uns should be on the rooftops—expect the Golds to be running the roofs, so fortify your ive them melee support Re This isn’t the first tiht together”

I give a boulevard apiece to four different Howlers, putting Screwface on the right flank, nearest the tunnels and farthest from the Mound

“And what about you, boss?” he asks

I put er in the center of the map at the Water Gardens

“Thraxa and I will hold the Via Triuo anywhere else If he wants to o through me If your line breaks, do not head for the tunnels It’s too far Their Golds will run you down Retreat to the Mound We’ll make our stand there” I look into their faces Not a st the has ended, so too has the fear Not one quibbles or shies from duty I could not be prouder “If I do not see you at the Mound, I will rab Screwface as the rest disperse “Be safe”

He just laughs

“Legion!” Thraxa roars

All across the ether and raise their fists as we jog past “Hail libertas! Hail Reaper!”

FRAGMENTS OF SCATTERED LEGIONS joinour nuuess Five thousand join us frounpoeapons, which are disbursed to our snipers and rifleas-powered grenade launchers Though they are little y weapons that never made them equal to Go

lds on the killing field, but at least gave them a chance Conventional rounds just don’t pack the same punch

To give our nposts with our razors as we pass Another swell of men come from the now-useless artillery batteries Thraxa waves to a little Pink girl who fogs her apartment’sas she watches us We have failed her like we failed those Red boys who came to my aid Soon they will know the mines and she will be returned to the Gardens where she will know only the pleasure of others, and one day think of her childhood when the Rising came as little more than a fantasy