Army life, Captain Michael Verlust imagined it was much the same for the Roman Legionnaires as for the 20th century soldier, and even 23rd century soldiers. The main component of army life seemed to be mud. Mud on the Front, mud on boots, mud as poison in the food. Granted this mud was a brilliant violet-brown colour as a result of some chemical in the soil here, but it was mud nonetheless to Verlust's eye. His tent, so similar to that used by his warrior ancestors,though he thought some of those men, like some of the tough bastards in his platoon probably disdained sleeping in a tent. Verlust however liked his comforts, such as it was. Enforcing strict boot discipline and a few sheets of plastic had kept the mud down to a thin layer on the floor. But it was everywhere else, a small pile of clothes being the worst offenders.

The Captain justifed that pile though because of the impossibility in keeping from being covered in mud while lying in a ditch by the side of the road on recon All the while the indigs blast the already war torn and muddy landscape into more muddy war torn landscape. Verlust felt quite strongly that they had mud production quotas, he knew that his arties did.

The Captain had long thought that war was really all about mud too. "They have it, we want it." being the defining motivation behind every war he had been involved in, and having held mud many times before Verlust knew that it can be a very difficult thing to do. If it's squeezed too tight it slips out between your fingers. If it's held it too loosely it will eventually escape you. And this was the worst kind of mud, slippery and sticky, liquid and solid. The end result of the continents main rivers coming together on a low lying plain before draining to sea. Throughout the extended rainy season there is never enough drainage for the ground to be dry and too much to flood the area and make it useless to the high muckety mucks who sat strangely removed from the mud back at Verlust's HQ.

A snort and the crackle of his left knee accompanied him upright from the cot. Once both knees would pop as he got up, the right though makes a soft hissing noise instead as fluids rushed through the valves and chambers of its hydraulics. He had kept his boots and pants on prior to hitting the sack, and quickly grabbed a tunic for his torso as he stepped out of the tent.

Platoon Bravo of Delta Company held Forward Observation Post 121. An innocuous sentence describing the past 3 weeks that Bravo has sat in the mud, deploying sensors and monitoring the indigs expected line of advance. An artillery shells whistle brought the captain to focus quickly. Standard procedure for an artillery bombardment involves finding cover fast, preferably in a small hole, or better yet tank or bunker. Bravo had neither tank nor bunker, nor a profusion of small holes - the problem with mud was that it tended to fill holes. They did have a series of sand (well mud) bagged hidey places scattered through-out their encampment and it was towards one of those that Verlust now dove.

They also had MAX. MAX - or Multiple Aerial Target Execution - was 300 pounds of electromagnet railgun, and small aspect radar controlled by a nasty little piece of software that normally handled artillery defense for recon missions. Max had a habit of targeting native bird life which flew too fast near the encampment, something the platoon would get meat from if the kinetic energy contained in Max's aluminum projectiles didn't turn all but the largest into brilliantly coloured clouds of bird that quickly fell to earth as a sodden steaming mess. The first shell was just a marker, to help target the rest of the indig's artillery salvo's. It seemed to Verlust a bad sign that Max's normally over active railgun was still silent.

When it became clear to him that the initial shell was going to land, and what that meant in terms of the salvo soon to follow Verlust squelched the emergency signal on his comm as he quickly pulled his helmet over his head. The shell landed as Verlust quickly buckled his body armor on over his tunic. Verlust kept both armor and combat rifle secured in this hidey hole outside of his tent. His sidearm Verlust, with over a decade of experience guiding him, he hadn't taken it off. Many troops slept in their hidey holes, the Master Sergeant did, but as commander Verlust had an image to maintain, so he slept 6 feet from his hidey hole and trusted that his reflexes would get him there in time. The shell landed short of the camp which meant that the indigs would be re-targeting. Max may have ignored the shell because it wasn't a threat, however Verlust didn't see the vicious little machine not taking a shot at the shell on general principles.

"Master Sergeant, Status Report!" Verlust expected Tom Banfield to be ready to respond. In the the seven years that they had been working together Tom had never not been ready when Verlust commed him. He had the sixth sense of good master sergeants everywhere, refined by 20 years on the field.

"MAX is down. Squad is deployed to hidey holes, Federov is out of position at sensor 12, he should be safe," Federov was the platoons technician, and sensor 12 was at their first evac point, "he's attempting to remotely restart MAX but I think that the damage back on Carsons world was more then we thought. I'm betting the whole power supply needs to be replaced before it'll be back up and running."

Verlust had brought up SatScan on his Helmet Visor Display and had overlaid the images of the suspected indig artillery sites in rapid fire until he spotted a thermal bloom.

"Incoming boys, make it about 1 min til we're in it. Button up, and hunker down." Verlust got even tighter against the sandbags of his hidey hole, minimizing any exposure to the maelstrom of shells coming his way. It was too late to evac the base - the platoon would be out in the open when the shells hit. The best they could hope for would be for the shells not to hit any hidey holes dead on, then after the bombardment was over they could move. The shells started their whistling descent and the Captain's shoulders tensed.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, Max rapidly started firing shells on the incoming barrage.

"Captain," it was Federov, "I've got MAX back up and running, but I don't know how long til it shuts down again."

"Roger Federov." Max was now launching a steady stream of projectiles at the barrage and was having a result, nothing had landed in the camp yet.

"All right Gents looks like we're leaving FOP 121 early, grab your gear - leave the tents and move out the the evac point." Verlust waited behind as the men of the 2 squads in his platoon grabbed their packs - leaving any tents behind - and booted it away from the indigs position towards Federov's position. When the 16th and final man - Master Sergeant Banfield - was past him, Verlust took off hot on his heels. The whistle of the artillery barrage was punctuated less frequently by the explosions of MAX's fire as its coverage zone contracted on the escape route. More and more shells were making earth in the area around the camp.

"Captain," Federov his calm voice a contrast again, "I estimate MAX will fail in 30 seconds, rounds should start impacting on camp then." Verlust was already 20 meters away and moving towards the hills quickly. FOP 121 had been sited on the plains in the mud because it allowed the platoon advance warning when the indigs started their attack, now that MAX was out the plains were no longer safe for Bravo Platoon.

KRUMP! KRUMP! KRUMP! Rounds started to impact on the camp, swiftly dismantling Bravo's home for the past 3 weeks.

-----

The evac point was a more defensible site then the camp had been. However while the platoon had been deploying sensors it had made operational sense to stay at in the plains. That was where transport had dropped them and where the indigs knew them to be. The plain gave them clear lines of sight/fire and MAX protected them from their shells. The evac camp, now the main camp, had been situated in the hills. They were at one end of a narrow thinly wooded valley with their backs to a bluff. The 1st squad had already rigged lines and hidden observation points on the bluff. The rest of the platoon was deployed in a semi-circle covering the valley approach without exposing anyone to friendly fire. Federov was dug in near the captain at the top of the horseshoe arc, glow from the displays of his sensor suite barely visible from Verlust's position. The network that Bravo Platoon had deployed would provide Federov, and consequently the platoon more then enough warning if the indigs attempted to cross the plains tonight.

The earlier barrage had been the indig's fourth in as many days. Verlust was concerned that the fact that they had succeeded in destroying Bravo's camp may provoke indigs into starting their offensive in this sector earlier then the timetable the central intel had give him, but Verlust doubted it He was confident these indigs had no imagination.

Regardless of what the indigs decided Bravo Platoon had completed it's task of deploying sensors in area 121 the day before and had been planning on breaking camp within 2 days. In three days they were going to rendevous with Master Sergeant Tam Shisnu and the third squad from Bravo Platoon. Tam was finishing up in the NE corner of their zone. Verlust chuckled as he recalled the conversation he had had with Tam after the Barrarge.

"The indigs had just cleaned up the camp after us, and since MAX failed, and was consequency destroyed we're now 300 pounds lighter. " Tam had said, the smile clear in his voice, he preferred what he called a purer approach to warfare, and resented machines like Max. "I'll miss that vicious little piece of hardware, but I'm glad Bravo platoon doesn't have to keep lugging it around. MAX's power is also its weakness, because it's always shooting at things you may as well broadcast your location to the indigs, there's no point in turning down its sensitivity, because then you run the risk of losing the value of an Anti-Artillery piece. In order to bombard bravo platoon the indigs will have to find us now."

Something Verlust intended to keep from happening for as long as possible. With a grin Verlust correctted his subordinate's phrasing for accuracy. "It isn't enough to find us, they have to live long enough to report back to their Battery Commanders. " That had ended their communication, until their rendevous scheduled in a few days.

Joker in second squad was running a pool with the enlisted men on the indigs attack plans. Master Sergeant Tom Banfield kept Captain Verlust apprised of the action, a lot of men were betting on the indigs making a move tonight. Central Intel was pretty confident that they were still a couple of days away, and Verlust would tend to agree with them. However he found it hard to discount the gut feeling many of the men had about the indigs following up on their attack this morning, so Verlust advised the sergeant major split the difference, pick tomorrow morning's dawn slot, and split the profits with him if he's right.

Verlust half expected the indigs to try a dawn recon of the old camp, the indigs weren't too comfortable operating at night, most cultures without lowlight equipment or good eyes aren't. Their tactics were also very top driven from a master plan, it was unlikely to him and Intel that they would start full operations early. The fact that the human forces regularly eavesdropped on their war staff meetings didn't hurt Intels confidence level one bit either.

This war was the usual sort. As humanity expanded from their birth planet it was inevitable that they would find other species on planets where they attempted to settle. Generally humans tried to co-habitat on the world with the natives – find an uninhabited landmass, or make trade agreements in return for land. In this case the colonists had made a treaty with the dominant natives and settled on a penisula extending south from the only landmass on the planet. The penninsula was seperated by mountains from much of the main continent, the result of its plate colliding with the larger central plate; much like the Himalayas on Earth. The region was generally too warm and dry for the natives but made a pleasant climate for man and his kin. The mountains provided a natural barrier to allow the settlers to build their own eco-system. The local natives eventually became desirous of the colonists apparent wealth of technology, and during a 6 month stretch between ship visits made war on the colony.

It seemed a pointless war, the colonists destroyed everything of value the minute it became clear that they would not be able to hold against the indigs. They hadn't had many weapons, and hadn't kept up with maintenance on the ones they did have. It still wasn't the one sided battle the indigs expected when they came boiling out of their fleet of cargo ships at the human port. They were 5000 to the colonists 250, but by the time the last 20 colonists had been killed in the communications tower they were a fourth their number, having resorted to over whelming the colonists with human wave attacks. Those last colonists had held on long enough to contact their satellite as it came over the horizon. There out of reach of the indigs the full story of the colonies last day was recorded. When the next human ship came the native's story of a virulent disease fatal to humans was duly noted and dispatched back to the nearest Military outpost along with the recording from the satellite. Meanwhile the trade ship requested the bodies of the colonists, and upon being told they had burned the settlement to prevent spread of the contagion, could do nothing further in the system so moved on. For 2 years the indigs believed that they had gotton away with it, 2 years where no human ships returned to their system, then the Military arrived.

Dawn loomed on the distant horizon, the morning rain had begun to fall, but the lush grasses in the hills soaked it up as quickly as it fell. Verlust slithered over the Federovs position, he was up and monitoring his screens. He had called up the display from sensors 47 to 53, covering the indigs most likely lines of advance on the plains camp. He'd zoomed in on a section of swamp bordering the plains. Verlust watched expectantly, and was rewarded by a wriggle in the vegetation that didn't match the movement of the rest in the soft breeze.

“Contact Cap.” Federov whispered to Verlust. They weren't in danger of being overheard but good noise discipline never becomes redundant on the battlefield. “Looks like seven or eight indigs, they've been out there for 2 hours now, still looking for signs of us at the camp.

“You think they missed our bugout?” Verlust asked him.

“Cap I was watching you guys go with 7 separate sensors, and with all of the activity in the area I could barely track you. The indigs have crude optics, they may have missed it.” It had been a heavy bombardment and with MAX's failure many of those shells landed close to the camp, without access to human helmet displays with telescopic and infraed function the natives may very well have missed Bravo's exodus. This presented to Verlust an opportunity.

“Federov, I'm assuming MAX was damaged or destroyed, but do we have any active equipment there?” The technician brought up a screen on his system. 2 items stood out in a list of green. One was blue, for reporting to the network, but non-functional, and one green for fully operational.

“One perimeter gun, good. And the coffee machine reporting damaged.” Military hardware was built tough. Verlust wasn't surprised that the coffee machine was still linked, the oddest things survive bombardment, having a full functioning gun was a bonus. “All right Federov I think it's time we made some coffee.” With a series of quick gestures on the display screens Verlust outlined his commands for the technician and left to find the master sergeant.

Tom was standing at the base of the escarpment that Bravo's camp butted onto. The relief from first squad was heading up the ropes. When they reached the top the two men from second would descend, likely racing each other to the bottom and a chance to relax after their 4 hour watch. The men could smell combat in the air, and moments to rest would be scarce soon.

“They got a recon squad in the swamp, Captain. Just shitting there while my slot expires. Murphy got the next slot.” He spat angrily to the side. “Fucking indigs don't even realize that the best time to attack is in the lull, dawn at the latest.” Military incompetence always pissed him off, almost as much as losing in the pool.

“Did you check the equipment list with Federov?” Verlust asked him mildly.

“Yes sir. We still have a perimeter gun, pointing the wrong way, and they'll see it if we reposition. I would have recommended moving it last night, but the way that moon was, they still would have seen it. No point til their too close. And they're just sitting there.” he finished in an exasperated tone.

“Still they will come won't they?” Verlust led him.

“Selfish bastards, they'll come to see what they can loot. They've had no success in that so far and they're desperate for our tech.”

“What do you think they would do if their loot started to smoke?” Verlust looked at him as comprehension started to cross his face, finally ending in a grin that contained no hint of a smile.

“How long do you figure, sir?” he asked

“Should be in the next 10 minutes. Federov has my orders, he should be able to handle it.” The kid was green, and this was the Captain's way of assigning the sergeant major to keep an eye on him without making it an order, or watching over the kids shoulder himself.

“Roger sir, I'll go check on squad deployment then.” Verlust gave him a nod and he left. Verlust knew that Banfield's checking on troop deployments would wind up with him at Federovs side right about the time the indigs noticed the smoke starting to billow from a coffee machine wrapped in the remains of the mess tent. Human fabrics were flame retardant, but the constant contact with the exposed element of the coffee machine would eventually start a slow smoky smoulder that would shortly enshourd the entire camp area, moving on the breeze almost directly towards the indig squad. The fact that Banfield's arrival at Federovs station the moment the indigs started their assault, and in the last five minutes of his time slot in Jokers pool, would enhance his already considerable reputation with the troops, didn't hurt either, Master Sergeants are supposed to be prescient.

Verlust intended to head up to the observation post and watch how well the indigs dealt with a remotely controlled automatic weapon operating behind a smoke screen. This was about the upper limit of technology to be used against the indigenous population. A tank may be higher, but the natives had deployed similar hardware, and while they couldn't replicated the destructive fury of human tanks, at least had a good understanding of the principles of armored combat. They had limited remote capability, but still possessed the technology to produce crude remote devices of their own so the Rules allowed the human forces to deploy remote weaponary.

The Rules of Engagement were designed to ensure that we gave the indigs a fair fight. The military only deployed equipment that had technology equivalents with the indig forces. This planet had no Nukes, so we were non-nuclear in deployment. Defense shields were out, but Anti-Artillery equipment was allowed. The natives have crude automatic weapons, and in theory could build phalanx type systems to defend against incoming fire. They even had a crude radar, so a target aquisition system could be designed. After the human forces wiped out the indig air capacity the they restricted their own air equipment to transport and recon activities only. Technically these indigs hadn't reached space, but they had all the essential technologies so the human satellite network was in.

Laying his rifle – generations beyond what the indigs carried, but similar enough in principle for them to understand – beside himself, Verlust brought up a sat scan image, overlaying it on a telescopic/thermal image of the old camp on his visor. His helmet computer reconciled the 2 images together to generate a reasonably accurate representation of the scene on the smoke covered plain below.

-----

The leader of the indig recon squad twitched in his uniform, his body fairly vibrating as he detected the smoke at the human encampment. All of that technology, that prestige for him, honor for his clan. He looked around at his warriors, the strongest from his clan had accompanied him when the council had decried war. He hadn't been part of the assault on the colony; in fact few from that assault were involved in the war now. Cowards, he scoffed. They hadn't had the weapons they had now when they attacked the colony. He had been watching these human warriors, their behavior strange and as unlike warriors as he could imagine. He had lost 2 scouts trying to recover one of the 1/2 sphere devices that the humans had been leaving throughout the area. The explosion while big, was no more impressive then that he had seen when the railway came to his clans village. There were too few of the explosive human devices around to be a threat, and as long as they didn't attempt to remove them they seemed safe enough. The human's technology was all like that, dangerous until it was understood. That was why they lost so many when they attacked the colony. Artillery, a new invention and after yesterdays destruction of the human base a rising one, if they had used artillery on the colony there would have been fewer of the clans killed. He had a story from a survivor of the first war. The humans had killed many with few guns, because the guns shot so fast. Now they had weapons that could shoot sprays of bullets like the human weapons, a simpler design that they had based on the human weapons they had found. They couldn't get any of those weapons to work properly, which some suggested meant that the human technology may be too complex to work reliably. Certainly the failure of the human's devil cannon during yesterdays bombardment seemed to support that argument. His squad was supposed to watch and report on what had happened to the humans, but the fusillade had been so heavy that he and his warriors had been buried in the muck praying to the mother that their gunners aim wouldn't get worse. Still the report that the human's weapon had failed and the camp seemed destroyed was being hailed as a victory by the council. All morning he had laid here and seen no movement, he could see his radio man deciphering the council's latest orders.

"Honored leader, they say we must not risk recovering the humans technology to the fire. They order us to go." The radio man, one of his littermate's offspring, abased himself as much as possible while lying in a swamp. His pheromones scented fear, and excitement.

"Aye, we'll go. Spread out in a ٨ like we planned, I'll anchor the left wing, you the right with your brother," Turning he spoke to the large warrior on his left,"Favored son. You will lead our unit at the point of the ٨, it will be dangerous, but the rewards will write our names forever in the Book of Heros." With that the old Chieftain waved his troops on.

-----

"Wooah! Captain we've got movement at the swamp" Federov called out on the comm. The indigs had appeared from the edge of the swamp on cue. They were using the heavy smoke to shield their advance to the camp. Federov was busy as well using the smoke for his own purposes.

"Wait until they are within 40m Federov," Verlust cautioned the young tech." and then you are clear to act at your own discretion."

"Roger, 60m and closing" His voice was calm as he applied his recently acquired training. Federov had been off world studying when this colony was hit, but he had had family here and had been quick to transfer his credits to the military academy and graduate as a technical specialist so he could join this force sent to his world. He was green which was why Verlust had sent him to the evac base to prepare for Bravo's arrival before the indigs blasted the old camp. This would be the first chance the young recruit would have to strike back at the indigs who had savaged his family. Certainly the indigs had blown themselves up a couple of times fooling around with the sensors Federov was responsible for, but this would be the first time he actively engaged the indigs. Personally Verlust disliked using drones in combat, but while Federov was proficient with a rifle Verlust wanted to make sure he was capable of what the battlefield would demand before Bravo wound up in a firefight relying on him.

Switching a private channel to Tom, Verlust let him know he was going to piggy back on Federov's perspective, but that the Master Sergeant was to manage the young tech through this exercise. With a short command his visor display shifted to match Federovs visor. Federov had divided his visor display into 2 halves, the top a 180degree remote perspective the view was thick black smoke, and the other a topographic map of the old camp and surrounding area. Overlaid on this map were heat sources as detected by the sensor suite to Verlusts left on the bluff. The closest of the heat sources was just reaching the 40m perimeter mark around the camp.

-----

The old Chieftain had lost sight of his men in the smoke billowing across the plain. The plan had called for them to advance on the camp in a wedge with supporting fire from each other as necessary. The plain had limited cover, but there was a collection of craters from the artillery bombardments that his unit could use. Of course in all this smoke it was hard to spot the craters that they had planned their assault along. In fact with the smoke so thick it was hard to even see ground at his feet, something the old Chieftain especially appreciated after toppling head first in the crater he had been heading for. The fall was short, 2 feet or so, but sudden enough that his grip upon his weapon had tightened and caused it to discharge. Once back up from his face he squatted in the crater and tried to find his men in the smoke, to see if they were positioned for the assault. The task was futile, he quickly realized, but he still located his troops for he could hear the stutter of their guns firing. He swore as he realized that his misfire had been taken by his troops as the signal to assault. This smoke was the problem, the plan didn't count on them being out of sight to each other.

-----

The Chieftains Favored Son had dashed in a straight line towards the crater he had chosen, his body tense at the thought of the human weapons. This smoke made it hard to see but he had been studying his route for days, learning the ever changing landscape as the artillery worked it over. He dove into his hole, hoping that his closest clan friends had made it to their points on the right and left of him. The three of them didn't doubt the humans capability. They had met a survivor of the human colony assault. The scarred warrior called himself a survivor, not a victor, and that for them was the most telling of all the things they heard from him. They had practiced with their guns for the past season, applying the lessons of teamwork they had gained from hunting together for much of their lives. There was a burst of fire, bringing Favored Son's head up quickly. The Chieftain was signalling the assault now. There would be no time to try and spot any humans before rushing the camp's perimeter, the Chieftain must have decided it would be pointless with the smoke anyways. He gripped his gun and jumped the lip, leading the point of the charge.

-----

The view point on the top of the screen showed a sandbagged wall, and just visible over it was the camp perimeter, being revealed as the winds began moving the smoke quicker. Some indig gunfire sounded and suddenly a shape appeared, moving quickly. The view centred on it and there were three quick flashes as the view rocked up. Now the view flowed along the mud of the camp, moving to the edge of the sandbagged wall. Peering around the corner, and the centre shape had resolved itself more fully into one of the indigs, two more shapes were emerging on his wings. 3 more quick flashes and the left wing went down. The centre indig also dropped seeking cover. 2 quick flashes and the right wing dropped too. The centre indig had dropped into a gouge in the earth, partially filled with mud, but deep enough to provide cover. From this position he was firing accurately back to his attacker. The view shifted back to sandbags as another shape emerged on the right filling the void left when the right wing had been shot. This indig immediately started spraying the sandbags with his weapon. Smooth as a snake the view flowed back from the sandbags into the source of the smoke, emerging further to the left then it had been before. With a new sandbag wall providing cover there were 2 quick flashes as the right wing was shot from an unprotected angle. The view then shifted rapidly as it tried to reaquired the centre target without success, but a new indig had appeared on the left wing, dangerously close to a sandbagged hidey hole on the camp perimeter. The position would allow the indig to flank Federov. The view twisted rapidly as it lined up on the indig and there was a more sustained flash and recoil as a larger projectile was arced out. The projectile reached the side of the hidey hole at approximately the same time as the indig, and the resultant explosion propelled the indig's body quickly into the hidey hole at the cost of his life. Meanwhile the view was racing across the camp towards where the centre had last been seen. There was an explosion of mud as the indig erupted from the pool he had been lying in. The indig's weapon started to track and fire when it seemed to jam or run out of ammo from the body language of the indig. The view continued rushing at the indig until there were 2 quick flashes and a sudden slewing off to the left. The indigs corpse still falling as 2 more flashes sounded and a smaller indig with an aeriel extending from his pack dived back into the crater he came from. The view began to jerk as though it was being tossed about.

-----

The Old Chieftain let out a savage yell as he downed the human machine finally with a stream of bullets from his weapon. Of his group only the radioman was left alive, so deadly had been the machine. It had moved against his squad like it was alive, in fact it was only after he shot down the killer of his favored son that he realized he wasn't even fighting the human, but one of their machine killers. He hadn't realized that it could move, and so fast, so predatory as it engaged his warriors. Could it have been guided? A human commanding it the way he recieved orders from the council on the radio? More and more as he thought about the idea he realized that it could be done, but that it would be very difficult for his people, anything they built would be nowhere near as graceful as that killer had been. But that killer was dead now. The humans couldn't have an army of machines like that because they would have used them by now. This must be the limit of their technology, and like their guns perhaps it's complexity worked against them. Now that he was in the camp he could see that there was nothing of value, the humans gear was either blasted or burned. He let out a harsh vibrating yell at the injustice of losing 5 warriors to a human machine, of finding only garbage after taking the camp, of a council he didn't see ordering him to send his favored son to die, and at the enemy he knew was in the hills. He would be back to avenge favored son, but for now he felt suddenly very exposed on the lonely, muddy plain.

-----

After the drones downing, it's sensors remained active long enough to capture the old indigs scream before fading. Then the display on Federov's camera cleared and Verlust caught the sudden swirling of the terrain around him as the young man bent and - Verlust cut off the transmission. Federov didn't need his Captain to watch him now.

The Master Sergeant would take care of Federov, Verlust had comms to make back to central headquarters. The indigs would still launch their attack in the next couple of days and his squad had to co-ordinate with the defense plans. Verlust was confident that they would beat them back, using superior examples of the technologies deployed by the natives, repeating a pattern followed on countless worlds. After the humans had crushed the armies they would restablish the colony and impose a peace on the planet. The native population would either comply and earn the right to join the galaxy, or the Military would be back, operating under a different set of Rules.

In the valley a boy newly acquainted with the reality of being a killer emptied his stomach; and on the plains the self-destruct device embedded in the drone exploded, leaving muddy ground empty of life once more.