"Then were in agreement. It has to be the Nairbs. They came to have a little show trial, then when that didnt go the way they wanted, they called in back-up."

I frowned inside my helmet and turned toward him. He was standing with his own squad about a hundred meters to the west. We were guarding both sides of this particular entrance to the mines. In between our two squads, a steady stream of infantry trotted over trampled snow, puffing with exertion.

He was looking back at me, but he was too far away for me to read his expression.

"Is that what you think?" I demanded over our radio link. "That my trial with the Nairbs triggered all this?"

"Well? Why shouldnt I think that, McGill? It wouldnt be the first time you screwed up and changed the fate of the human race, now would it?"

I heaved a sigh, and I almost closed the channel. Harris might have finally broken down enough to shake my hand and welcome me into the ranks of the Varus veteran society, but he still had a grudge going. I was the source of all evil in his eyes.

Looking up, I thought I saw something-something I hadnt expected to see. "Harris, I think were going to have the answer to your question sooner rather than later."

"Whys that, McGill?"

"Because theyre dropping troops. Drop pods incoming-thousands of them. By G.o.d, they look like stones falling from the sky."

Everyone was looking up, some of the troops paused to squint and point before running faster for the entrance.

I added Leeson to our channel. "I think we should hit them before they get their act together, sir," I said.

"What?" demanded Harris. "Dont hit them, fool! Adjunct Leeson, sir, these capsules must be more troops from Solstice, thats all."

"No Vet," I said, "I have it on good authority our ships have pulled out. Theyre fleeing the system even now. Theres no way Turov would have turned around to come back and drop another legion. Do I have permission, Adjunct?"

Leeson was inside the mines and couldnt see the situation out on the slopes.

"Command your men and fight you dragons, McGill. Ill bring the rest of the platoon out there in a few minutes. Leeson out."

He dropped the channel, and I was left watching the first capsules as they struck ground.

"McGill!" Harris said to me privately. "Dont you go off and do something stupid now, do you hear-?"

I cut him off. "Squad, limber up. Were advancing downslope."

My people had been lounging, but they perked up quickly when I gave the word. My squad was smaller now that Id lost Della and the rest of Harris people, but Id gained Sargon and every one of our dragons was in prime fighting condition.

"Work your battle computers," I said. "Filter out the troops that are already on the ground from those dropping. Mark the new arrivals as hostile until we know the score."

By the time Id deployed downslope, Leeson came thundering out with another full platoon. Graves and even Winslade himself followed with more dragons.

Our questions concerning the nature of our new arrivals were answered almost immediately. Firefights broke out in a dozen places all around us. Our infantry were caught up in a dozen small gun battles with the invaders. They were definitely not friendly.

"Which squad has anti-air cannons on their backs?" Winslade demanded. A squad from another platoon reported that they did, and Winslade ordered them to shoot down every pod they could get a bead on. Almost immediately, small missiles created plumes of gas and flame. Missiles streaked up to meet the drop pods. A hundred of the pods were converted into fireb.a.l.l.s before they reached the mountainside.

The troops whod been trotting for the mine entrance at our backs now became a fleeing mob. Their only orders were to get under cover since they didnt have any weaponry that could shoot down a falling drop-pod.

Our AA cannons missed as many drop pods as they hit, and they kept on coming down. Soon, enemy infantry were climbing out of the pods all around us. Some were kilometers off, others were right in our faces.

The troops-at first, I didnt know what to make of them. They were physically larger than men. About two meters tall and bulky. They stood as dark humanoid hulks outlined against the snow. They had heavy projection weapons, and they wore armor. We faced a heavy cohort-but not a human one.

Then I saw the tails, and I knew.

"Saurians!" I shouted over the unit channel. "Sirs, theyre saurian troops! No juggers, just basic raptors."

"Weve figured that out, McGill," Graves answered. "The enemy are saurians from Steel World. Theyre not authorized to breathe on this planet. Were going to correct the error."

"Whats that mean?" Sargon asked.

"That means were supposed to kill all the lizards, you big moron," Carlos said.

I winced when I heard that. Sargon wouldnt do anything now in the midst of battle, but there was sure to be a fresh a.s.s-whooping waiting for Carlos after this was over. Some people never learned.

"Squad, we havent got any AA," I said. "Were going to use our spinal cannons to blast any group of saurians that gets their act together and forms a cohesive force."

It didnt take long. After about three minutes of total confusion, our troops stopped streaming into the mine. The rest that were still out on the slopes had either been shot or were pinned in defensive positions by the enemy. The steady drumbeat of drop pods from above showed no signs of letting up.

We soon identified organized groups of saurians who had formed up, taken cover and now were laying fire down on our position. My team had gone with heavy armament as our mission this time out was supposed to be a defensive one, not a fast-moving recon effort. Our load-out choices paid dividends today as I ordered my squad to switch on their shields and fire their heavy guns at enemy concentrations.

Troops melted away under fragmentation sh.e.l.ls. Rarely, a group of saurians charged in to close with us, but we repelled them with grenade fire at point-blank range.

As we fought, organized Varus infantry came out to help. Centurions led them, and soon, a full unit was supporting every squad of dragons.

The saurians soon figured out they werent going to take us out with an all-out wave a.s.sault. Surprise had helped them initially, and wed lost a lot of men and dragons out on the slopes. But these gains were easily balanced by the carnage our dragons reaped against their unsupported attacks. It was a slaughter, and my squad only lost three machines while killing several hundred attacking troops.

Finally, the saurians pulled back. The drop pods no longer came down directly on top of us. When new arrivals climbed out of their pods, they ran away, disappearing over the folds of the mountain.

When it grew dark, we retreated as well. We posted guards at the mine entrance, and my squad was relieved. We walked our creaking dragons into the caverns and got out of them, aching and complaining.

"You did well out there, team," I said. "I didnt see a single mistake. Well done, well fought."

My troops beamed and clapped one another on the back.

One clap came down a little too hard on Carlos, however.

"What the fu-?" Carlos demanded. His voice was cut off by a pair of huge hands that encircled his windpipe and began squeezing.

Carlos looked at me plaintively. I looked at him and his a.s.sailant. Then I nodded to Sargon.

"Proceed, Specialist," I said.

Sargon beat on the smaller man for a full minute. Carlos got in a few good licks-he always did. Sargon looked surprised when his genitals took a hard yanking for example-I could have told him to look out for that one. But in the end, Carlos was down on the ground, heaving, crawling and puking.

I sipped a hot cup of caf and pretended I hadnt seen anything. Sometimes, the life of a Veteran-rank noncom had its little rewards.

-44-.

By morning the next day, we were surrounded by around sixty thousand saurian troops. They were crawling all over the mountaintop. Some were above the mines, and some were below us, maneuvering along the ridges and escarpments, hugging stone and ice for cover. A siege had begun, and without support from s.p.a.ce, we had no way of knowing what the enemy was up to. Our buzzers had managed to count the enemy troops, but that was all. The tiny spy drones were being caught and destroyed as fast as we could send them out.

After a sleepless night of barricading the mine entrances, the officers were busy filing our units after-action reports with Winslade, and Id been repairing our dragons. We kicked off our platoons morning briefing at ten a. m. sharp.

"Sixty frigging thousand!" Leeson marveled when we were done with the boring parts. He gave a long, low whistle that made me clench my teeth. Sometimes, when a whistle comes in through sensitive headphones, its pretty annoying.

"They say they had seventy thousand when they first dropped," I pointed out.

"Thats right," Leeson said pointing a gauntleted finger at me. "You boys did well. Altogether, our anti-air fire combined with our quick counterattack cost them dearly. Their initial a.s.sault was meant to catch us by surprise, but it was an utter failure. They lost the equivalent of a full legion. Just think of it!"

"A lot of those were splats, sir," Sargon pointed out.

Leeson shot him an unhappy look. I caught that, and I think Sargon did too. He shut up in a hurry.

"Sure, sure," Leeson said, "half those deaths were due to splats, Ill admit that. The lizards are new to this game. I bet not one of their troops had ever crawled out of a pod into a firefight before. But we gunned down five thousand, we estimate. Thats astounding!"

Leeson sounded excited, bloodthirsty even, but I had to feel a small pang for the lizards thatd died yesterday. Theyd fought well and fearlessly. The question in my mind-and everyone elses-was why theyd come here to fight us at all?

Leeson thought he had an answer for that. "The best part is these clowns will all be permed for this. Theyve over-reached this time. Theyre obviously trying to stop Earth from grabbing a competing source of metals. h.e.l.l, their entire sweat-box of a planet might not survive once the Nairbs pa.s.s their judgment."

I wasnt so sure about that, but I didnt want to go up against my commander in an argument that was pointless. If this had been a matter of tactics and survival, sure, Id speak my piece. But not when we were talking about whether something was true or not. Truth had a way of sorting itself out in time, and yapping about it never changed the answer.

"We whooped them," Leeson continued. "Thats what it comes down to. And when they come into these tunnels to dig us out, well smash them down again. They dont have a chance!"

A few ragged cheers went up from the group. Suddenly, it dawned on me what Adjunct Leeson was doing. He was trying to build up morale. Seen in that light, his rhetoric suddenly made good sense.

These people needed a pep-talk. Anyone with half a brain could see we were all totally screwed, that we were going die in this hole like it was the biggest warren full of rats in history-but it was equally undeniable that troops with hope fought harder.

Accordingly, I stood up and banged my gauntlets together. Harris joined in immediately. Sargon looked startled, but then he stood up with us. He was still walking funny after yesterdays encounter with Carlos, but he was game.

Id noticed that Sargon was doing everything Harris and I did lately, trying to support us. As a man bucking for rank, that made good sense. In contrast, my methods to achieve promotions were unconventional and even accidental.

Graves joined the group, and the applause grew louder. He stared around the team flatly, then nodded when wed quieted.

"That was well done yesterday," he said. "Our defensive rearguard action helped get as much equipment off those slopes and into the mountain as possible. As far as Im concerned, we accomplished that mission."

That was vintage Graves. Lives? Deaths? Those meant nothing. Hardware was what he cared about. In his calculus of war, our blood meant about as much as our spit-and probably a lot less. We had more blood in us than we did spit, after all.

He went on to talk about deployments, defensive preparations and supply rationing. After the meeting, we broke up and were a.s.signed specific duties. As my team had taken losses in battle yesterday, so we were spared guard duty. I told everyone to go on break and relax but to keep their dragons ready to roll. We could get called back to the front lines any minute.

"Hey, McGill," said a gravelly voice.

I turned to see Carlos. He was in pretty bad shape. His right eye was swollen shut, and his lips were split and as red as raw meat.

"Ouch," I said. "You fit to fight, soldier?"

"You challenging me again, Vet?"

"No," I chuckled. "Whats up? And why havent you gone to the infirmary to get some skin sprayed over that?"

"Its no big deal. Ive been too busy."

"Doing what?"

He smiled, and the blood that outlined his teeth made me squinch up my eyes.

"Kivi, for one thing. She thought it was cool that I stood up for my rights with Sargon."

"Did she hear what you said to him to get your a.s.s whooped?"

"No-and dont tell her about that part, okay? She thinks I was a total victim."

"Dont worry," I a.s.sured him. "I think youve paid enough for that mistake already."

"Okay, cool. Lets go."

"Go where?"

"Ive got something to show you, Vet. I guarantee youre going to like it."

Figuring I didnt have much to lose, I followed him as he walked painfully down into the guts of the mountain. I was expecting more vids of squids on their home worlds, or possibly another giant squid in a tank. What I got was something entirely different.

The mines themselves were largely unexplored. Wed checked out the upper levels, where there were smelters and transportation systems for ore and t.i.tanium bricks, but we hadnt spent much time in the lower tunnels where the actual mining had been done. Carlos led me deep into the uncharted depths.

"Here is the limit," Carlos said, pointing down into dark shaft that led downward at a thirty degree angle. "This is about as far as anyone has ever been in Mount t.i.tan."

"Thats because the rest of the mine is empty," I pointed out.

"No, not entirely. Kivi and I found some equipment down there. More stuff that belonged to the squids."

"Why mess with that?"

"What are you? Stu-?" he began, but stopped himself, taking a breath.

That was possibly the first time Id ever seen him edit himself. Carlos always insulted people who were bigger than he was-h.e.l.l, that behavior was practically stamped in his DNA.

He shook his finger at me and his split lips parted into a ghastly grin. "No, no way. Not this time. Im not giving you another excuse. Not so soon."

"Just tell me why you brought me down here."

"Look, the squids had the native machines working for them, right?" he asked.

"Yes, seems like they did."

"And therefore, they had to have a way to tell the machines what to do, didnt they?"

I thought about it. After a few seconds, I nodded. "That stands to reason."

"Exactly. And let me tell you one of the prime rules of tech development: if its already invented, copy someone elses work. Dont invent your own. Its much easier that way."

I chuckled. "All right then. Did you find a translation device?"