“Alley! Get the hell out of my way! I’ll burn ’em!” “They’re a frickin’wall,Cutter!” “Keep moving! Hang onto that box, Ekart, or I swear to God I’ll make you go back for it, Zerg or no! Keep moving!” Wabowski was on Ardo’s left, laden down with two fully charged plasma tanks mounted into the back of his Firebat flamethrower battle armor. Esson flanked Wabowski on the far side. Though Ardo could not see him directly, his helmet display noted M’butu directly behind them. They were in the classic support position for Firebats, something Ardo gave no more thought to than the others following Littlefield across the square. One might as well concentrate on thinking about how to breathe. Everything and everyone was performing by the book. Then why,Ardo thought,Khadgar felt on the very precipice itself. Medivh warned him not to let too much loose to the Champion, but Lothar seemed to know as much as Khadgar knew. More, even. Lothar spoke in a calm voice. “We would not send for Med for a simple matter of a magical misfire. Nor even two common ...

then burst into what once was the lobby. Wabowski, the second Firebat in the platoon, was already charging up his plasma flamethrower. Mellish and Esson were both fingering their gauss rifles nervously. Sejak seemed even more agitated than the others. “Where’s Jensen?” Ardo asked. “Went to find M’butu,” Sejak said, licking his lips. “He said he’d only be . . . oh,hell,he’s overdue.” “I say we go find him,” Wabowski rumbled. “And I say we follow orders,” Littlefield snapped, coming down the stairs and joining them. “The lieutenant knows what she’s doing. You’ve got the word and you know the drill. Move it, people! Onme!” Littlefield readied his own assault rifle and moved out through the broken doors of the lobby. The broken squad glanced around at each other for a moment and then moved quickly to follow the sergeant. The wind was blowing a steady,“I don’t think anyone does,” said Khadgar, drowning any additional comment he might have made in his ale. “Not even his mother, I understand,” said Lothar. It was a small comment, but it slipped in like a dagger thrust. Khadgar found ...

It was a direct question. Ardo could not help but give an answer. “Ma’am! Yes, ma’am!” “Did I not make it clear that this was a recon and extraction mission?” “Ma’am! Glass-clear, ma’am!” Breanne’s face was getting uncomfortably close to Ardo’s own. Her words were chilling. “Then why, soldier, did you disobey my order?” Ardo swallowed. “Fell down a shaft, ma’am! Encountered a Zerg . . .” He stammered slightly, the memory of it flooding over him all at once. He dropped his eyes, suddenly ashamed. “I . . . I killed it!” “Look at me when I’m talking to you, soldier!” Ardo’s eyes locked on her sharp nose. “You think that’s what we’re here for, to kill Zerg?” “Ma’am! Yes,“None taken, milord,” said Khadgar, thinking of the dead mages in the tower room. “You ask how he is. He’s all these things.” “Hmmmph,” said Lothar again. “He’s a very powerful person.” Khadgar thoughtand you worry about him like the other wizards do. Instead he said, “He speaks well of you.” “What did he say?” said Lothar, more quickly than perhaps he meant to. “Only,” Khadgar chose his ...

Ardo barely had the presence of mind to quickly remove his own helmet and salute. The smell in the room was more familiar than what he had experienced in the spore tunnel, and therefore all the more nauseating. Her voice was coated in frost. “Private . . . Melnikov, isn’t it? How good of you to obey an order at last.” Her eyes flicked over toward the sergeant. “Mr. Littlefield, do you think this fresh-out-of-the-can Marine is worth my trouble?” “Ma’am . . . by your grace,Lunch consisted of a cold game fowl looted from the cold room and tucked under Lothar’s arm, and two mugs of ale the size of ewers, one in each meaty hand. The King’s Champion was surprisingly at ease, despite the situation, and guided ...

You would have thought they would have at least removed the dead,Ardo thought, as he stepped into the Operations Room. Operations was at the top of the three-story central building in the complex. Its windows, now vacant of all but the smallest shards of glass, looked out over the settlement. The building had probably been the last stand of the colonists, and when the fight was over there was nobody left to bury the dead. That had been several days ago. The Confederacy Marines had given the Zerg a pretty good pasting when they reached Scenic. Intel called it an “extermination” and believed that only a minimal force of Zerg remained in Oasis. Still, no one in command had thought it necessary to come back to the pumping settlement and honor the valiant fallen. After all, theyweredead. The Operations Room itself had seen considerable damage. Several Marines from Second Squad were working to shore up the gaping holes in the outer wall. The sporadic light from their hand welders played a ghastly blue-white pall across the grizzly scene.“The power was too much,” said Medivh. “When I was a young man, younger than you, it awoke within me, and I slept for over twenty years. Magna Aegwynn had so much of a life, and I seem to have lost most of it.” His voice faltered again. “Magna Aegwynn…my mother…” he began, but found he had nothing more to say. Khadgar just sat there for a moment. Then Medivh rose, shook back his mane and said, “And while I slept, evil crept back ...