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.Briggs stepped back, looking over at Sung.The male stood there, trying to catch his breath, and she was fairly sure that the Grilyon had a broken rib or two, or whatever passed for them in his species.“When will you call this fight?” she asked the Admiral, looking over at his predator’s face.“It ends at first blood,” he said, grinning.“Not before.”And now she saw the fatal flaw in this challenge, as far as her man was concerned.The Grilyons were made to draw blood.And Briggs had nothing on him that would penetrate that leathery hide.Maybe he can just take a superficial hit, she thought, wondering how she could get that idea to the Major.It was obvious to all that Briggs was punishing the alien, and could probably kill him, given time.And that was another result that the Commodore did not want to think about.The Grilyons saw fighting as an enjoyable pastime, but she wasn’t sure how they would react to one of their own being killed by an outsider.Briggs ducked under another blow, then blocked a second, then threw a wheel kick into the warrior’s face.The alien’s head snapped back, and blood spurted from his mouth.“First blood,” yelled the alien leader, stepping into the ring and laying a hand on Briggs’ shoulder.“You are the victor, human.”The large warrior wiped the blood from his mouth with the side of a hand, then stepped forward to put his other hand on the Marine’s opposite shoulder.“You fought well, human.I would be proud to fight beside you, and call you brother.”“As would all of us,” echoed the leader, looking around the pit to see head motions of agreement.He looked over at the Commodore.“We will fight beside your people, Natasha Sung.Against the honorless vermin you now battle.”Sung looked over at her smiling Marine Major, now arm in arm with the warrior he had just battled, lifting a mug of their strong ale into the air.Not the way I would have gone about forging an alliance.But hell, whatever works.* * *MASSADARA.JANUARY 8TH, 1002.“How are things going at your end, Baggett?” asked the Planetary Commander from his HQ.The com was coming through a couple of thousand kilometers of fiber optic cable, allowing them to talk without giving their positions away to the ships in orbit.Most of which were moving out of orbit to deal with the threat that was now striking at their force in the outer system.“We’re ready to go, sir,” replied the commander of the First Heavy Infantry Division, his massive suit leaning against one of the holo projectors that would soon be employed to mask the surface of the planet.The fifty ton unit was currently powered down, waiting for its chance to project a holographic image into the sky that would obscure the visual observation of the surface.There were four hundred of the units in his area of operations, along with several hundred jammer sets that would mask the electronic signatures of every Imperial unit as soon as they powered up.“In fact, the boys and girls are chomping at the bit, General.” He looked over at the King Tyrannosaur tank that sat under its high tech passive cammo covering, making it look like a small hill under the canopy of tall needle leaf trees.The tank was also powered down, the crew aboard, ready to get her up and running in seconds when the order was given.And they know exactly where to strike, he thought, pulling up the tactical map of the area, and the large force of Cacas who had recently landed and were frantically setting up defenses.More of their shuttles were landing every minute, ferrying the troops down from the almost helpless troop transports still in orbit, at least giving the soldiers a fighting chance, and not just making them targets of warships they couldn’t fight.“Almost,” said the planetary commander.The clock inside the heads of both men’s implants ticked off the seconds.Until, right as Baggett’s hit zero, the voice of the commander spoke.“Roll them out, Baggett.”“Yes, sir,” shouted the General into the com, then switched to the broadcast circuit for his brigade commanders.“The word is go,” he said into the com, listening to the jubilant acknowledgements that came back.Not very professional, he thought with a smile, not about to castigate anyone for the feelings he knew were going through his commanders.They want payback, for family, friends, even the strangers they had taken oaths to protect.Thoughts of Sestius, of his losing battle against the Cacas, giving ground as his attached units, his people, bled out.As the civilians he was supposed to be protecting died by the thousands.And now we get some.The holo projector came to life, rolling into position beneath an opening, then firing a powerful blast of laser light in a wide cone up into the sky.The clouds overhead flared with bright light, the clear areas with a canvas of colors.The other projectors added their light, until an area of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers were no longer under visual observation from space.The electronic jamming commenced at the same time, each unit putting out megawatts of static across all frequencies, blotting out enemy communications, covering up the electronic emissions of Imperial battle suits and vehicles.The division’s main battle computer, secreted in a secure cavern, was keeping track of all the changes to the electronic jamming, switching the division’s com through frequencies that were clear for seconds at a time.At the same moment the ground based equipment powered up, a hundred hypervelocity rockets flew into the air, pulling a thousand gravities [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]