I made some plans and special arrangements, and by the time I met her coming out of Blue Decks main hatch, I had a picnic basket on my arm.

She looked at it and smiled. "What have you got?"

It was a long list, and there were even a few special items like pickled quail eggs and a bottle of real wine.

"Where did you get all this stuff?" she asked.

"I pulled a few strings."

She gave me an odd look. "With Turov?"

My mouth opened then closed again. I was stumped. Did everyone believe I was some kind of boy-toy for the bra.s.s?

"No, with the quartermaster. He owed me one. What kind of rumors have you been listening to?"

We walked together toward Green Deck as we talked. I was annoyed, but I tried to keep my voice light and unconcerned. Even I knew that yelling at your date in the first five minutes wasnt a wise mans opening move.

We came to the entrance, which was an overgrown arch of leafy vines. It had always looked strange as the vines were in stark contrast to the steel walls of the ship.

We pa.s.sed inside before she reached out and touched my arm with gentle fingers.

"Im not being fair to you," she said. "We should cancel this."

"What? These quail eggs arent going to eat themselves!"

"I know. I appreciate all the effort youve gone to, really I do. But I dont know if I can go through with this today."

"Aw, come on," I said. "Lets talk it out. First off, no, I didnt screw Turov to get out of being permed."

Her eyes were on mine now. She didnt say anything, but I knew I had her full and undivided attention.

"Secondly," I continued, "I didnt kill the Nairb ship and doom us all."

"You didnt?"

"Well-hold on," I said. "Okay, I did destroy their ship. But thats been fixed. The Galactics believe it was the squids that did it."

"How did you manage that?" she asked suspiciously.

I gave her the general story, leaving out many of the details. In my version, I was more of a secret agent sent to remove an obstacle than a crazy convict who managed to kill his executioners first.

"So," she said, "thats why youre still breathing? Because Earth wont be blamed?"

"Thats right. Were in the clear."

Now, you have to understand that I didnt know any such thing. Not yet. The Nairbs were dead, and as far as anyone could tell, they hadnt reported the details of their fate. The radioactive evidence trail had been effectively planted too, pointing a guilty finger at the squids. But the investigation hadnt come yet, and hadnt made any conclusions.

To my way of thinking, I wasnt lying-but I was embellishing and extrapolating. The results I described werent certain, but they were likely and preplanned. When I was finished, I watched Anne to see how my words had been received.

She still looked wary, like a cat that just wont come in the door because it suspects youre going to grab it the second it does. She was right, but I kept on smiling and waiting like I didnt have a care in the world.

Finally, she stepped closer and took my hand again. I sighed and we found a spot to eat. Together, we shared a few hours of happiness on Green Deck. No one bothered us, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

-42-.

The only thing I hadnt gotten out of Anne the night before was a promise of more romantic encounters. Shed enjoyed herself, we both had, but shed stopped short of making a commitment.

In the morning, as I booted people out of their bunks and sent them reeling to the showers and breakfast, I was thinking of her. How was I going to entice her this time? Id spent a lot of credits and good will getting that picnic together on Green Deck, but a man couldnt pull that stunt every day. For one thing, Id be broke before the week was out.

Fate had other plans for me in any case. Klaxons wailed, and we were called to battle stations at about nine in the morning. My team was busy doing calisthenics in our module, and we didnt even have our dragons handy to jump into.

"You know what that noise means!" I shouted. "Move your b.u.t.ts, people. Everyone get down to the dragon bay. Were not getting caught with our pants down this time!"

I knew things were bad when red arrows appeared on the deck, leading toward the lifters. I contacted Leeson immediately for directions.

"McGill, the legion infantry is doing a hot-drop. Get your dragons to the lifters, p.r.o.nto!"

"Will do, sir," I said, waving to my squad who were pounding along behind me at a run. "What are we up against?"

"Unknown ships have entered the system, and theyre heading for us. Were deploying Legion Varus on the t.i.tanium mountain, with Winslades cohort to back them up. Thats all I know for now. You have your orders, Leeson out."

How many ships? Thats what I wanted to know, but he was off the channel before I could ask.

I relayed the information to my squad, and Sargon contacted me privately afterward.

"So Solstice is going to stay in s.p.a.ce?" he asked.

"That part didnt get past you, huh?"

"No, Vet. The way I see it, Turov clearly has a plan-and for once it makes a little bit of sense to me. She wants to protect her sole prize on the planet surface and at the same time hold a reserve force in s.p.a.ce she can drop anywhere in response to an enemy attack. Our legions are only useful on the ground, so we can take it as something of a compliment that shes chosen Varus to be deployed first."

"Thats one way to look at it," I admitted. "Well find out what were facing in due course, Im sure. Ill keep you informed, specialist."

"I know you will. Youre not as smooth at this job as Harris was, not yet, but I like your style, Vet."

"Thank you, Sargon."

We disconnected, and I had to smile. Sargon was one of the few men in the unit who hadnt doubted me, not even when I was accused of blowing up an Imperial ship and possibly causing the eventual demise of Earth. He and I understood each other. Sometimes, a man had to do what a man had to do.

We were busy after that, plugging our bodies into our dragons at the same time we were decoupling them from the ship. They came to life as we moved inside them. After having piloted one of these fine machines for months now, it felt like a second skin. When I moved my arm, my dragons long steel appendage moved. I felt like a giant made of fine metals-and thats pretty much what I was.

Clanking down pa.s.sages toward the lifters, we made good time. There were arrows to follow on the deck, but we knew the way by now.

The ship was venting and yellow flashers were spiraling around everywhere. It was enough to give a man a headache. The crew was scrambling just as much as the troops were. I knew what that meant, they were getting ready for some fast maneuvering. This might well be a s.p.a.ce battle rather than a ground battle. If that turned out to be the case, my cohort might well be the lucky ones. Anyone up here could be caught and destroyed, helpless in their dragons.

When we got to the lifters a line of bios were there, waiting. They had a data system, and they demanded our data disks before we boarded.

At the start of this campaign, each of us had been issued a silver disk about the size and weight of a half-credit piece. There was nothing unusual about that. What was strange was that the bios were asking for them now. I surrendered mine, and the pretty little bio put it into a slot on a data terminal. I wondered if I would get it back-but I didnt.

"Say, Specialist," I said. "Whats the deal? Why are we giving up our disks to you shipboard people? Arent we taking revival machines down to the surface with us?"

"I dont know about what equipment youll be issued, Vet," she said. "But I know were supposed to update everyones data before they get on the lifters."

She proceeded to scan me then, which amounted to plugging into the data ports on my dragon, which connected in turn to my tapper. All down the line they were stopping troops and making these transfers. It took about a minute per man, and I thought it was little strange.

"A full body-scan? Our most up-to-date data? Who ordered this?"

The Specialist pointed upward, at the ceiling. "Gold Deck. The very top."

Turov. It had to be her. But why?

Events moved quickly after that, and I didnt have much more time to think about anything. We were hustled aboard the lifter, with me doing plenty of the hustling for my own squad. I shouted until my voice was hoa.r.s.e, if only to be heard over the general din of metal clawed feet slamming against the metal deck.

Soon, we were harnessed up and set free. The lifter swooped and shifted under my feet sickeningly. The pilot knew this wasnt a drill, and she was giving it the gas. We were in open s.p.a.ce for only thirty seconds before we hit the turbulence of the upper atmosphere.

Its always hard doing a fast-insertion onto a planet. You cant help but wonder if youre were riding in the unlucky lifter destined to catch some flak and blow up. But even so, its better than being locked into a pod and fired at the surface like a cannonball, which is what was happening to the infantry.

Legion Varus had an unusual number of splats that day. Heavy and light troops alike flashed down, looking like white-hot streaks in the sky-but some of their pods never opened after landing. Some punched into the hard ground like bullets, their braking jets malfunctioning. Other men had been crushed when the two halves of their capsules slammed together. Blood that boiled away and burned into a dark stain on the sides of the pods told that story. Still others screwed up, opening their emergency releases too early, too late, or even jamming them and suffocating when their minimal life support systems ran out of oxygen. Such was the lot of the infantry.

Our lifter full of dragons screamed out of the sky like a diving eagle. I was able to watch some exterior events remotely via my tapper. It was when I looked up, craning the viewpoint around to look behind us, that I noticed something unexpected. I contacted Natasha right off. She knew things enlisted people werent supposed to know, and I valued her opinion.

"Natasha," I said, "Im getting some strange imagery."

"Relay the feed."

I did so, and she watched with me for several quiet seconds. The engines of Minotaur and Cyclops, the big ships wed left behind, were flaring blue. Streaks of white gas and light were Stretched out behind them for a dozen kilometers.

"Is that what I think it is?" I asked her.

"Undeniably. The ships are pulling out. Thats a full burn, and although I cant be sure-Id guess theyre moving to high orbit."

"Where theyll engage their warp bubbles and run?"

"Thats a pretty good bet, James. Im sorry."

"Not your fault. Turov gave the order. I guess you dont have to worry about her being sweet on me anymore. If she is, shes got a strange way of showing it."

"I cant believe shes running out on us."

"How many ships are out there, Natasha?" I asked. "Do you know? Whats coming?"

She hesitated. "I cant be one hundred percent sure, because the techs on the bridge whove blabbed sometimes exaggerate."

"Just tell me. How many?"

"Seven ships, Imperial configuration. All of them are headed our way."

I let out a long breath that I hadnt realized Id been holding. Seven ships. Thats why Turov was pulling out. She wasnt even going to fight them.

All of a sudden, the fact shed dropped Legion Varus and Winslades auxiliary cohort on the t.i.tanium mine didnt look like such a compliment. She was bailing out and leaving us behind to defend her prize alone.

It was clear to me now, as well, why the bio people had taken our data just before we dropped. We werent expected to survive being marooned out here. If we wiped, they wanted a good, clean copy they could use to revive us all at a safe distance.

The lifter touched down, landing with a bounce that made my teeth clack together, and I began unlimbering my dragon. My grippers worked like extended hands, and I felt a certain resolve growing in my heart.

Wed fight, and wed die on Machine World, just like we were supposed to. But afterward, if by some miracle I wasnt permed, I wouldnt forget wed been abandoned.

-43-.

It turned out in the end that there were seven ships approaching Machine World. They were Imperial capital ships-the same design as Minotaur and Cyclops. Thats why Turov had pulled out. In a way, I couldnt blame her for that part. She had two ships, two sets of sixteen broadsides. Even if shed wanted to tangle with these interlopers, she would be facing seven to two odds. There was no path to victory for Earth when our ships were outnumbered so badly.

What I wasnt happy about was being dumped on this iceball and left to the slaughter. Turov had chosen to leave a garrison and pull out. Legion Varus was going to have to face the enemy alone.

Fortunately for me, I didnt have time to think about any of these unpleasant details when the lifter opened up and disgorged our dragons onto the steep slopes of t.i.tan-which was what wed named this mountain over the last week or so.

"All right, listen up," Graves said in my ear as I rushed my people out into the snow. "Well start this by stealing a page from the squid playbook. Were going to get everyone inside the mines. Well hide in there to keep the enemy guessing as to our full strength and composition. In the meantime, if they choose to bombard us, well be reasonably safe."

"Ha!" Carlos said after Graves dropped out of the channel. "The squid playbook-look how well it worked out for the squids!"

I had to admit, he had a point there. But I couldnt openly agree with him on the chat channel, and besides, it was probably the best move we could make.

"Shut up in the ranks," I said. "Dragons, form a wedge. Well stand guard at the entrance to the mine and cover the infantry as they get out of their drop-pods and try to get to safety."

"What if they start dropping bombs on us?" Carlos demanded.

"Then well run over the infantry stragglers to get into the mines. These dragon vehicles are more valuable than our flesh, remember that. You are expendable! But your vehicle isnt."

There was grumbling, but it was nothing they hadnt heard before. No one in a real, fighting legion was uncertain about their lack of personal value to the Empire, or to Earth.

We stood outside in the hazy cold, watching troops struggling through the snow from every direction to the mouth of the mines. Thousands of them came in knots and bunches. No one ordered them to form ranks and columns to make an organized march of it-commanders didnt know how long we had, and after the drop, the troops were scattered to h.e.l.l and back anyway.

In my dragon, I kept one eye on the gray skies. It was pretty pointless to do so, of course. If the big invading ships rolled into orbit overhead, we probably wouldnt see them from the ground in the daylight. If the ships did park on top of us and fire their broadsides, we would only be treated to a few seconds of brilliant falling stars. After that, everything for kilometers around would vanish as the fusion sh.e.l.ls landed.

But I still found myself gazing up at the sky, and the rest of my squad mates were doing the same.

A channel request beeped, and I opened it without looking to see who it was.

"McGill here, go ahead."

"You think theyre up there?" asked Harris voice in my helmet. "They say seven Imperial drop-ships, same as ours. What in the f.u.c.k is that about? Who would have the b.a.l.l.s to bring troops out here and try to kick us off this planet?"

That was the real question we all had swimming in our heads. Harris had finally voiced it. What the h.e.l.l was going on? This wasnt supposed to happen. Sure, there were the squids and there were the p.i.s.sed-off Nairbs. But how could either of them have brought in a force in response so quickly?

"I dont know, Vet," I said. "Could the squids have copied our designs?"

"Id vote no on that theory. Ive heard it before-Leeson seems convinced these ships are squid counterfeits, built to freak us out. But that just doesnt seem right."

"Agreed," I said. "I dont think its the squids. Copying another culture? No, thats not their style. Theyre too arrogant for that."