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.So would I.I think tomorrow we'll be building asamadh.To the honor of the Corps."CHAPTER FORTYRoger looked out from the citadel wall as the first overcast light of dawnstole across the dead, jungle-devoured cityscape.The company had been up for nearly an hour, getting breakfast and preparingfor these first moments of early morning light.This time, Before MorningNautical Twilight, had been considered the most dangerous time of all formillennia.It was the time preferred for a "dawn attack," when sleepy-eyedsentries were at their lowest ebb and attackers could slip up under cover ofdarkness but attack with the gathering light.The Marines' answer was the same one armies had used for centuries: get upwell before time and be awake and alert when the moment of "stand to" came.Naturally, as had also been the case for centuries, there were somecomplainers.Roger wasn't one of them.He'd been up for hours the previous night, reviewinghis actions of the day before and worrying about what was to come.For allthat he'd been fighting monsters and the occasional skirmish or ambush all theway across the continent, this would be his first true battle.Today theKranolta would come to kill the company, and someone would lose, and someonewould win.Some of them would die, and some would live.While it seemed likelyPage 190 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlthat casualties would be light, there was still a risk.There was even a riskthat the humans would lose, and then word of the treachery aboard theDeGlopper would never reach Earth.Roger had smiled at himself when he reachedthat point in his ruminations.It was amusing to realize that the main thinghe thought about was that the word wouldn't get back to his mother, not thathe himself would be dead.Sergeant Major Kosutic padded up silently behind him and leaned on the lip ofthe adjoining embrasure."Still quiet," she said, and glanced over at Cord who stood silently atRoger's back.Since the events of the day before, the old shaman had attachedhimself firmly to his "master," and was rarely to be found more than fivemeters away.The sergeant major had been up from time to time the night before.Notworried, just running through the practiced actions of an experienced warriorchecking on changes.Still, she'd become slightly perturbed as every sentrythroughout the night had reported more and more fires.The tactical computerswere having a hard time pinning down numbers, but each fire sent the estimatesup and up.The current balance of forces didn't look good."I wish we had some razor wire," she said."Do you think it will come to that?" Roger asked in surprise."They've onlygot spears; we have plasma cannon.""Your Highness I mean, Lieutenant," Kosutic said with a smile, "there's an oldstory, probably a space story, about a general and a captain.They werefighting some indigs and an air car came in with a spear sticking out of theside.The captain laughed and asked how they could lose against people armedonly with spears.But the general looked at the captain and asked how shethought they could win againstpeople willing to fight an air car with only a spear.""And the moral is?" Roger asked politely."The moral, Lieutenant, is that there is no such thing as a deadly weapon.There are only deadly people, and the Kranolta " her hand waved over thebattlements at the broken city " are fairly deadly."Roger nodded and looked around, then back into the sergeant major's eyes."Are we?" he asked quietly."Oh, yeah," Kosutic said."Nobody who gets through RIP is a slacker in afirefight.But.there's gonna be a lot of those scummies, and there ain'tmany of us." She shivered slightly at the smell of woodsmoke from thethousands of fires in the jungle."It's gonna get interesting.Satan damn meif it ain't.""We'll get the job done, Sergeant Major," the prince said confidently."Yeah." Kosutic looked at the sword hilt jutting up over his shoulder."Isuppose we will."Captain Pahner strolled up, checking the positions, and looked out at themists curling around the ruined city."Beautiful morning, fellas," he remarked, and Roger chuckled."It'd be even more beautiful if half 'my' platoon were in armor, Captain.What's the status?""Well," Pahner said with a grimace, "it isn't pretty, 'Lieutenant.' Poertenafound the fault, which is a mold eating the contacts coating of the jointpower conduits.You can't remove the coating; it's a dissimilar metalliccontact.The problem seems to be in a new 'improved' version.""Oh shit," Kosutic chuckled grimly."Yeah." Pahner nodded with a grim smile."Another improvement.The suits thathadn't been'upgraded' are okay.But that's just the four.""What are we going to do?" Roger's eyes were wide, for Pahner had stressedrepeatedly that they had to have the suits to take the starport."Fortunately, the contacts tend to wear out, so each suit has a spare in itsPage 191 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlonboard spares compartment.The ones sealed up in the storage packets areokay, but.""But there's only a couple of spares per suit, normally." Kosutic shook herhead."So we're down to four sets of armor for everything except taking thespaceport.""Right." The captain nodded."We can cannibalize from suits that we lose theusers for, or that go down with other problems we can't fix.So we can put HisHighness in a suit if things look particularly bad.But until then, it's just'The Four Horseman.' ""I guess that will have to do," Roger said with a shrug, then changed thesubject."So what's the plan for today, Captain?""Well," Pahner replied with his own shrug, "we wait until they have themajority of their forces in close, then engage with all the firepower we have.I won't say that I agree or disagree about whether they should be wiped out asa tribe, but we can't afford to have a large force following us to the nextcity-state.So they have to be eliminated as an operational threat at least.""Can we do that?" Over the night, Roger's ardor had cooled, and he looked atthe scattered weapons positions worriedly."Against what I'd estimate the maximum threat to be, yes," Pahner said."There's a big difference between barbarian warriors and soldiers, and todaythese Kranolta are going to discover that.""What's your estimate?" There were hundreds of fires in the jungle accordingto the taccomp inRoger's helmet just under a thousand, in fact."I'm estimating a maximum of five thousand warriors with some camp followers.More than that is really hard to maintain logistically.""Five thousand?" Roger choked."There are only seventy of us!""Don't sweat it, Your Highness." Kosutic gave him a cold smile."A defensiveposition like this gives us a ten-to-one advantage all by its lonesome.Add inthe firepower, and five thousand isn't an impossible number." She paused andlooked thoughtful."Tough? Yeah.But not impossible.We're gonna get hurt,though.""We'll make it through," Pahner said grimly."That's the only thing thatmatters.""What did Cord think of those numbers?" the prince asked, looking over hisshoulder at the shaman.Despite the Marines' confidence, it still seemed like a lot of scummies tohim."The Kranolta are said to be as numerous as the stars in the sky," the shamansaid quietly."They cover the ground like the trees.""Maybe they do," Pahner said, "but that's not what you could call a hard andfast number.And it's really difficult to support more than five thousand inthese sorts of conditions.I don't see any sign of a baggage train, forexample.""And if it more?" Roger asked dubiously.is"More than the stars in the sky?" Pahner smiled wryly."If it's more than fivethousand, well.we'll just handle it
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