
drowned out by the ozone-crack of his weapon as it vaporized the partly exposed boot of a bandit.
Instantly, the other two Marines on the left slope opened fire; the cracks of their weapons, the even
louder cracks of the rocks that split when the bolts hit them, and the sizzle of vaporizing flesh, nearly
masked the screams of wounded bandits or those burned by flying globules of molten rock.
"Take cover!" Bass bellowed as he dove behind a nearby boulder. All across the valley-side came a
scattering of cracks as the bandits began to return fire. On the valley floor, the Marines tried to return fire
from cover while the gun team set up, but the shields that protected them from the bandits' energy
weapons did nothing to protect them from the molten rock thrown when incoming fire melted stone. The
Marines caught in the killing zone could only huddle behind the boulders, out of the way of the sizzling
bolts and flying magma.
Procescu assayed the situation quickly and calmly gave orders into his communicator. "Three Actual, get
the rest of second squad and the other gun on that slope to help your flankers. Send your platoon
sergeant with two assault teams to the flankers on the opposite slope to lay down some suppressing fire.
Remaining assault team and assault squad leader, to me."
Bass opened the switch that allowed him to listen in on all of the communicator talk in the unit down to
fire team leader. He heard the third platoon commander give his orders, the platoon sergeant pull
together the rest of the assault squad, the squad leader, assault squad leader, and the fire, gun, and
assault team leaders urging their men into motion. The fire and gun team leaders pinned down in the open
reported that they had no casualties.
Bass flicked down his infra goggles to scan the slope where the fire was coming from. He picked up only
a couple of dozen man-size heat signatures. What's going on here? he asked himself. There's got to be
more bandits than that. They wouldn't set up an ambush unless they knew they had us outnumbered.
Abruptly, heavier fire broke out on the left slope as Lieutenant Kruzhilov and his reinforcements reached
the flank and added their power to that of the three Marines shooting at the bandits there. Over the
command net Bass heard the platoon commander coolly issue orders to coordinate the fire of his ten
Marines. In seconds, instead of firing at random targets, they were hosing out plasma bolts in line,
slagging a broad swath of slope beginning twenty meters to their front.
The third assault team reached Procescu, and the Bravo commander added its fire to the advancing
maelstrom.
Forty meters in front of the Marines on the flank, a screaming bandit leaped to his feet. One of his arms
was missing, a cauterized hole was burned through his thigh, and a ball of half-melted rock had set his
uniform ablaze. A Marine in the open rose up from cover and took him out with a clean head shot. The
remaining bandits broke and ran.
At least they don't have shields, Bass thought.
"Cease fire, cease fire!" Procescu ordered. "Three Actual, maneuver to check that slope, make sure it's
cleared. Check the bodies, see if there's any we can keep alive to question."
Bass frowned. He couldn't believe such a small force would set an ambush for a reinforced Marine
platoon. He twisted around to scan the opposite slope. He saw, through his goggles, that its entire length
was blotched with red—that's where the main effort of the ambush was! The bandits hadn't known the
Marines had flankers on the slopes, so the flankers were able to trip the ambush early. The bandits on the
left must have been a blocking force that was supposed to stop the Marines from withdrawing after they