And on another note: A new page of text enters the fight!



“Well, thank the gods for decent intelligence,” Sandra muttered. The Tacnet was full of information about what they were finding— the library had been located by the simple expedient of going over images from the stealthed observation craft, showing people leaving a structure with books and other documents.



It could have been a paper and book store, but it turned out when the first team got there, the intelligence types had gotten things right. Leaving Sandra and her squad mounting a guard position between the town and the landing point for the landers the rest were busily grabbing everything in sight. The capture crew wasn’t bothering to make a selection— they were just loading the books as fast as they could get them.



“We’ve got what looks like a video player with an antenna,” a voice said. “As well as some reels of what look like… dunno. They’re not any form of electronic data storage, but there’s a player unit here. Some type of microform, I guess.”



“Bring it on board,” Colonel Ross said over the net.



Sandra listened with half a mind, most of her attention on scanning her area of responsibility. Remotes would have done it easier, but if they had been forced to evacuate, remotes might be left behind.



She could-what the frak



“Command, this is Eyes-one, I have two humans approaching the LZ.”



“What? How did they get past you?”



“They didn’t. They must have been in one of the ravines. We’re not exactly working with a full air-recon presence here. One male, one female, they look young. Pushing a two-wheeler… looks busted.”



“How can you tell that?”



“Because it just fell over and the male kicked it.”



“Yap. It’s busted.” Someone said.



“Can the chatter. Are they going to get in a position to observe us before we’re ready?”



“I…” Sandra blinked. “Wait one.” Then she spoke again. “Command, there is a cluster of smaller animals behind them— I can see them on thermal but I bet the two humans can’t.”



“What are they doing?”



“Don’t… they look like dogs, but why aren’t they with them?” Sandra frowned. Dogs were pets. They were always trying to get a snack out of you when you were on the arc ships so why were these animals hanging back? She could see them clear as day through the sight of the sniper rifle, another example of the fact that the Marines weren’t always at the end of the line for new toys. The magnetic accelerator could be set for anything from kill a centurion to put a fairly big hole in a light armored vehicle, to say nothing of the sights, connected to her visor by a fiber optic link. It showed the humans… kids, her mind filled in, for all that they’d be getting ready for their first cadet deployment in the Fleet, walking along as if they were kings of the earth…and behind them those loping animals.



Are they play-



“They are not pets,” Davan said.



“How can you be sure…” Sandra asked.



“Because this is a world, a world with much open wild space… which you have never experienced.”



Sandra had to give him that. Oh, she’d been planetside, but lichen generally didn’t cause issues for the marines.



“These are wild animals. Hunters.”



Oh Frak… Sandra thought, and then the dogs were charging the two humans, who finally realized something was not right with the world.





***





The bike was behind them, lying on the ground where Mike had dropped it. He had intended to pick it up, but then the dogs had come loping out of the night, not looking like Blackie. For a moment, Mike had wished they’d had his dog, then changed his mind. Blackie chased balls and ran away from squirrels…these dogs would have eaten him.



Like they were probably going to eat him and Esther.



Could the day get any worse?



“Up there!” Esther gasped. “We can run up the side and down the slope and maybe they won’t chase us!”



Mike nodded, the two scrambling up the slope of the pit that someone had dug long ago, possibly looking for water or digging out clay for brick making.



***



“Take the frakking shot!”



The order rang in Sandra’s ears, but there were more than one dog. Did wild animals run if you shot the leader? Frak if she knew, the skinjobs didn’t exactly use animals.



“Give me one,” she muttered and hit the selector as the magazine obediently cycled through the rounds. “Loading,” she continued as she sighted down the barrel. Anti-vehicle incendiary would make a hell of a bang and flash, but not much in the way of fragments. Hopefully the dogs would run off, and if they didn’t, she’d have see if she could kill them faster than they could go after the kids.



“And here we go…” Sandra muttered as she pulled the trigger.





***



The projectile would have been considered a 20mm anti-tank rifle projectile, but the filler burned hotter and faster than any earth filling would. Moments after it struck the stone Sandra had aimed at, just between the two groups, a blaze brighter than a sun filled the night, coupled with the sound of the round smashing into the stone. Sandra had been right. There were few fragments, most of them going harmlessly into the night as the panicked dogs howled and fled.



But Esther had been holding out her hand to help Mike up, as he was behind her in case of any dogs making a run at them. She was staring right into the sun that had been born in the desert. She stumbled, shrieked, clawed at the air helplessly, and then fell into the pit, bouncing off the sun-baked dirt and the odd stone as she tumbled to the ground thirty feet below.





***



“Frak,” was the only thing Sandra had to say, and then things got very busy indeed.







