"Break right, two oclock!" I ordered. "Up on that snowy ridge-see them?"

Wed all spotted them by now. My HUD outlined them in red and drew little arrows that pointed down to them when they came into direct view. Squid infantry, I was sure of it.

As a group, we veered toward them. Their fire became almost frantic. Still, they werent focusing enough rifle fire on any single dragon to bring it down.

I began to think this wasnt going to be suicide after all. We were only about three hundred meters from the enemy, and already my comrades were chugging out grenades. Enemy contacts blinked out when we scored a kill.

"Incoming missiles!" Della called. "Weve got seven seconds! Six...five...four..."

"Spread out!" I ordered. "But keep advancing. If we get into the ranks of the infantry, they wont be able to pound us with artillery without hitting their own troops."

With a whoosh and boom, the first missile landed behind us, sending up shattered rock in a spray. A half-dozen more landed a second later. They were smart mini-missiles. The later members of the missile swarm learned from the hits or misses of the first ones.

Two dragons were taken out, struck dead and sent rolling down the mountain in a cascade of flame and fragmented metal. I didnt even know who died-I didnt have time to worry about that.

We reached the snowy ridge moments later. The squids, to their credit, rose up to meet us without showing an ounce of fear.

It was an uneven contest. We were encased in t.i.tanium with limbs powered by fusion. They were only determined b.a.l.l.s of muscular flesh. We man-handled them, tearing off tentacles and throwing the writhing limbs down to steam in the snow. It was a slaughter, but I reminded myself it would have been just as grim if squids had caught and abused our light-troopers.

A dozen of the enemy went down before they got smart. They backed away, spraying concentrated fire at our legs. One machine went down on one knee-it was Carlos. I could see his nameplate. He stopped advancing, but he didnt fall. He balanced painfully on his knees and used his grenade launchers to great effect. The squids tried to close with him to finish him off, but he stopped every attacker that loped in his direction with a well-aimed grenade in the guts.

The rest of them we tore apart. A full company of enemy squids were wiped out.

The troops cheered, and smoke roiled around us. "Centurion Graves," I called, puffing inside my helmet. "Weve met and defeated an enemy formation. We lost two dragons, and one more is damaged."

"McGill," he said, "Im checking on your stats-youre out of position. You left your infantry behind. Worse, you fought the engagement without my flanking troops to help."

"Sir, would you have rather have had me stand on the slopes and wait? We were taking fire from every direction."

"Right-those mini-missiles... Fine, I hereby approve of your tactical decision. In fact, I want you to repeat it."

"Pardon me, sir?"

"Take the next ridge. Look upslope, man."

I craned my dragons cha.s.sis back to gaze uphill. Now that wed exited the fogbank, the mountain looked more imposing than ever. I could see it in all its pristine glory. The mountain was formed like many others but with the vertical look that all geologically young mountains had. A series of sweeping ridges and stair-stepped plateaus rolled upward seemingly to touch the sky itself.

Centurion Belters troops straggled in as I looked upward. They were puffing and spent. Theyd covered the rough ground as quickly as they could, but I couldnt expect them to keep up if we pressed onward.

"Sir," I said to Graves, "Belters people cant run any farther. Theyve reached us, but they need a rest. My dragons have power-levels that are halfway down to the red, too. Besides, I just lost three vehicles, twenty percent of my force."

"Are you complaining, Veteran?"

"I suppose that I am, sir."

Graves fumed for a few seconds. "All right. Wait for the rest of the column. Well regroup and decide how to proceed. Hide your dragons under an overhang. There are more mini-missiles appearing on the screens now."

These final words goaded me into action. I shouted for everyone to disperse and hug up against a chunk of solid rock.

We rode out the next storm of missiles and then endured out three more waves before Graves arrived with his much larger force.

Seeing what we were up against, Graves requested support from above. Turov launched an attack, and the mini-missile battery was silenced.

-33-.

When we finally began moving upslope again, we had a lot more troops. There were about seventy dragons, nearly half Winslades remaining force, and about a thousand infantry.

Strung out in a long, ragged line, my dragons led the ground troops as before, providing them with cover. Graves still wanted to charge again if we ran into enemy resistance, but so far there wasnt any.

Probably the strangest thing about our new formation was the personal presence of Primus Winslade himself. He was riding a dragon around in the rear ranks. This surprised me as I hadnt known hed been trained to operate one of the vehicles.

Carlos beeped my private channel, and I opened the connection with a sigh.

"Whats up, Carlos?"

"You know whats up. Im screwed."

"Yeah, pretty much," I agreed.

This time, Carlos had a serious reason to complain. His machine had been too damaged to fix in the field. The techs had looked it over and shaken their heads. They left it behind in the snow, and he was transferred into the infantry. This had resulted in an unending fountain of complaints.

"This is what I get?" he demanded. "This is my legions idea of a heros thank-you?"

"Thats right," I told him. "Only in Varus, its more of a heroic kick in the pants."

"I must have killed thirty squids in that last battle. All while I was on my knees!"

"Thirty?" I asked as if scandalized. "You wiped out seventy or Im a liar!"

"You are a liar, McGill."

"Its one of my best skills," I admitted.

He was suddenly quiet, but not for long. Carlos was never quiet for long. Even when he died, it seemed like he popped back out of the revival machine with his mouth wide open.

"Whats with Winslade?" he asked. "Am I blind, or is he marching at the back of the line in a dragon?"

"You are blind, but youre right, hes driving a dragon like he knows how to do it."

"I bet he got private lessons from Della. Just like you did last night. Hey, I just thought of something! Why doesnt he give me that dragon? Hes not going to fight if theres another battle. h.e.l.l hang back and do nothing. You watch."

"Why dont you ask him about it? Ill patch you right through to his private chat line."

"No thanks. a.s.shole," he said. I thought he might shut up then, but no dice.

"Hey," he piped up a moment later, "that last fight was pretty cool, wasnt it? We charged right up there and smoked those squids. They probably didnt even know what was coming. I think the ones I killed inked themselves at the end."

"Thats their blood," I said. "Its darker and thicker than ours. Almost black."

"I say it was ink."

"Fine, it was ink."

He was quiet again for a minute. "You know Im going to die in this infantry unit, dont you?" he asked. "Belters crazy, and her Solstice troops are looking at me like they want to pop me right now and get it over with."

I frowned. "Maybe youll live, maybe not. Centurion Belter has gotten her troops this far. Youre exposed, but the cavalry is the top-priority target by now."

"Belter is a real ball-buster. She loves death almost as much as Graves does. I know Im a dead man. I can feel it."

"So what else is new? Time to shut up, now, okay? Im trying to listen in on the planning session."

I closed the line with Carlos and tuned into the command chat line. Graves and his officers were discussing our next move. We were advancing now, but not directly upslope. We were spiraling around the mountain, trying to avoid their concentrations while gaining alt.i.tude.

The squids, for their part, seemed to be playing a waiting game. We pa.s.sed camps that showed theyd been here in force but had retreated. They didnt seem eager to face us head-to-head. I couldnt blame them for that. So far, theyd lost every pitched battle. But why were they playing for time by retreating? Did they have a surprise waiting for us? We had no way of knowing.

"Ive got Turov looking for enemy concentrations and dumping on them when she finds them," Graves said into my ear. "But theres suddenly a big lack of squids out in the open since we bombarded their mini-missile brigade. Either we got them all or they went underground."

That thought made me frown. Id seen more than just squid camps on the way upward. Id seen evidence of native machine life as well. Big divots in the land that left shiny marks of the kind a backhoe might have left in rocky soil at home. We hadnt seen any native machines, though. Only squid infantry. Of course, the big machines might very well be in tunnels in the regions of pure ore higher up.

I wondered if the native machines could digest t.i.tanium and what it tasted like if they did. Probably, it was something akin to steak with a fine wine for them.

We trudged upslope for about three solid hours before we reached a good sheltered spot and let the troops rest. The dragons needed to recharge as well.

When we got started again, more than half the daylight had gone by. Nearly half the mountain had been climbed, too.

I have to admit that by the time darkness began to fall, Id been lulled into thinking this march was pointless. That wed hurt the squids so badly the last survivors would be hunkering down somewhere, scared and hoping we didnt find them.

Such fantasies were ripped apart just as the sun began to set. The big white ball of heat known as Gamma Pavonis had actually peeked out through the clouds now and then, dazzling our eyes and glaring blindingly on the snow-which was melting in the slight warmth the star provided.

That was when I realized something about this planet. It had big mountains down where we were now, around the equator. There were no real seas, but there were spiky mountains, and where they rose up into the sky enough to pierce the clouds, they revealed their frozen methane to the sun now and then. At that point, the white star melted the frozen methane, transforming it into the thick mists that coated the planet. Everything in the mist froze again, and the cycle was repeated.

All around us, as the frost melted, sheets of hanging white mist rose up. It was like walking in a sauna. At first, I could see every trooper and dragon on the slopes around me. But after half an hour of sunshine, they were vanishing one by one.

When darkness finally came, the enemy attacked.

They came out of nowhere. Thats how I remember it. Looking back, Id have to say they were in tunnels that had been buried by snow. Maybe theyd purposefully buried themselves, I was never sure afterward.

The squids themselves, in close, werent that much of a problem for our cavalry. The real problem was presented by the native machines that joined their attack.

There had to be at least fifty of the big machines. They rose up from under the ice where theyd lain in wait in our path, like landmines the size of buildings. They heaved up, tossing men and dragons aside, sending them tumbling downhill in an unstoppable avalanche.

One minute we were marching along, minding our own business. The next, we were in the middle of dozens of heaving hills of frosty machines. In between these, we were faced with armed and armored squid troops.

The confusion was overwhelming. Every channel was full of shouting troops and the sounds of panicked, dying men.

I muted the general command channel and switched to squad chat. That way, Id only be dealing with my own group. In this kind of mess, there was no front line. There were no formational tactics. We were in a pitched battle at close range. I knew that if Graves really wanted to get a hold of me, he could do so on the unit channel.

"Squad, dont panic. Heres what were going to do. I want you to pull in tight and put Dellas group in the center. Her heavy mounts are the only ones carrying spinal cannons in our squad. Della, link up, focus fire, and take out one machine at a time. Dragons with grenades, keep firing on the squids. You know the drill."

Indeed, Della and the rest did know the drill. She marked her targets and called her shots. The machines began to blow up around us, one at a time.

The process seemed slow and imperfect, but it was working. The machines themselves were undisciplined, as usual. They humped over the ice, gobbling up running heavy troops one at a time and munching on the metal. When they took down a dragon, that took them longer, but they still rasped and churned until the job was done. This gave us the time we needed to take them out.

"McGill?" Graves said in my ear after we blew up our fourth target and were maneuvering to hit the fifth.

"Sir?"

"Are you listening to command chat?"

"No sir, Im destroying the enemy."

"Normally, I wouldnt complain about that, but Winslades calling for you. Hes in trouble, and wants you to save his a.s.s."

I didnt roll my eyes, but I wanted to. "On my way to his position-sir? I dont see him on my display."

"Thats because a machine ate him. He was all alone in his dragon suit, and apparently he tempted the wrong machine."

"Heading to his last known location, sir. Permission to take Belter with me for support."

"Granted."

I relayed the situation to my cavalry squad and to Belter, who loosed an impressive stream of profanity.

"Not only do we have to march up this icy rock in our underwear, now we have to save Winslades b.u.t.t too?"

"Thats about right. Lets move out."

"Wait. Well go in first."

This puzzled me for a second. "What?"

"You heard me, Specialist. Stand your post. My infantry will save the worthless Primus Winslade."

"But sir, how will you deal with the machine?"

"Well roll under that things skirt and light up plasma grenades. Youve seen us do it before. If you punch a hole in that machine upper armor and pound sh.e.l.ls inside, youll only kill Winslade anyway."

"Right, okay. Well back you up."

I watched Belters infantry rush the machine, and I had to admit, it was just as impressive a sight as it had been the first time. Carlos tried to connect with me, but I was too busy to listen to his complaints. His light went out about thirty seconds before the machine heaved up and died. I grimaced. Hed bought the farm for sure.

Reflecting afterward, as the enemy broke and fled with us peppering their backsides with our guns, I realized Carlos had been right. Belter was a real death-dealer. She liked to get into it, and she was more than willing to lay down the lives of her people, as long as the mission was accomplished.

When we dug Winslade out of the debris, he was still alive. He looked frightened, but he pulled it together when he saw who we were. I ordered my squad to encircle his position while he climbed out of his wrecked dragon and dusted himself off.

"That was excellent work, McGill," he said. "I knew you could pull off this rescue."

"Uh..." I looked around for Centurion Belter, but didnt see her. "The infantry really did it, sir," I said. "They came in under the machines skirts and took out the guts of it."