II

The Marines neither saw nor heard the ventral ramp of the North Cape open, but they felt their Makos launch forward and enter free fall; a hard kick followed seconds later as the thrusters abruptly slowed their descent. A second kick and the Marines getting pressed toward the fronts of the Makos indicated that they had hit dirt.

Akiban connected her omni-tool with the Mako's systems and activated a live-feed of the gun camera. She swapped through the gun cameras of the other Makos of the platoon to get an idea of their immediate surroundings. Clouds of dust from the landing and the North Cape's flyby obscured the view, but the sensors saw through it and enhanced the images, showing the barren plain beyond. It was an accurate summary of the colony's arid latitude, except for its immediate surroundings which had been adapted for agriculture. The Marines had landed just outside the perimeter of largely automated farms that had been a major source of sustenance in the colony's first years and were being maintained since then.

"All vehicles, column formation. Two, you take point. Then One, Three, and Four. Find us a road between those farms and take it slow," Akiban ordered.

The squad leaders acknowledged the orders, and after the Makos had lined up with forty meters of clearance between the vehicles, they moved out at barely fifty kilometers per hour.

Except for the hum of the engines and the drivers occasionally exchanging information on their comm channel, it was quiet in the Mako of 1st Squad—disadvantage of being in the platoon leader's tank. Akiban used the silence to check comms with the North Cape.

"North Cape, this is Land Rider One actual."

"North Cape, copy. We read you, Land Rider One." Akiban recognized Ktenge's voice. "There's some static on your comms, Land Rider, but we read you."

"Acknowledged, North Cape," Akiban said. "We've deployed and are now moving toward the colony."

"Copy that, Land Rider One. We've got you on our sensors. Boards are still clear. Keep us updated."

"Acknowledged, North Cape. Land Rider One out." Akiban cut the channel and looked at Huber. "At least we've still got comms with our ride. Everything calm."

The gunnery chief nodded. "Good to know."

Akiban turned her attention back to her omni-tool and switched to Two's gun camera. The driver, Private First Class Linda O'Reilly, was just sweeping the camera across the area ahead. Balance Point was a typical colony in its expansion phase: The core of the city was visible from the distance and consisted of large structures that had been built on or had replaced their modular foundations of the colony ships that had originally settled the world. Smaller one and two-story buildings formed the outskirts of the city and mostly served as habitats for second-wave colonists. The more flat than steep slopes of a mountain rose behind the cityscape. Rocks only protruded near the summit of the geological formation that ran deep into the ground and was the core of Balance Point's mining operations.

As the camera swept left again, Akiban could see walls and the guard towers of the garrison fort. It was due west of the base with a large airfield between it and the city.

It was late afternoon local, 2212 North Cape shipboard time, when the convoy of Makos entered the city. The drivers had centered the gun towers of the Makos—so not to appear to be aiming at something or someone—and were now using the auxiliary cameras to look around. There were people in the streets; some of them looked curiously at the Makos driving past, others ignored them. Other than that it was very quiet.

"Notice something?" Huber asked. He was also watching the cameras on his omni-tool.

"No vehicle or air traffic." Akiban had noticed it immediately. "Unusual for a colony of this size. There's what? Over thirty thousand people here?"

"Odd," Huber agreed.

"Colonial Administration coming up on the right," O'Reilly announced when they reached a part of the city that looked like its original core.

"All vehicles, we're stopping in front of the admin building. You can stretch your legs if you want, but stay near the buckets," Akiban ordered.

The Makos came to a halt near a large beige structure. In spite of the modifications and annexes it had received, it still bore the unmistakable marks of a repurposed colony ship with modular attachments—even the flight of concrete stairs that led up to the entrance, that once must have been the first floor, did not hide that.

Akiban hit the controls and the boarding ramp lowered. "Be right back," she said as she unstrapped herself from her seat. "Alvarez, Vinne, you're with me."

The lieutenant got to her feet and walked down the ramp. Immediately a gust of cold wind carrying fine dust struck her. She ignored it and moved on, stretching her back as soon as she could stand upright, and hopped off the ramp onto the street. The two riflemen she had picked to escort her followed suit.

"Let's go," she said, ignoring the colonists who had stopped to look at the Marines.

They walked up the stairs and entered the administration building. The rushing wind was the only sound to be heard other than the calm chatter of the Marines disembarking from the Makos. Akiban activated the controls next to the entrance and the door—formerly an internal access hatch of a colony ship—slid open noiselessly. The three Marines entered a small room with no windows, one door on each sidewall and two on the back wall. The walls had been added later to split the originally larger segment of the ship into smaller compartments. Everything was kept in the uniform naval gray-blue, even the reception desk where a lone woman sat, mid-thirties from her looks, apathetically staring at a golden holoscreen. She looked up tentatively as the trio approached.

"Good afternoon, ma'am," Akiban said, stopping at the desk. "I'm Lieutenant Akiban, Seventh Frontier Division, Tenth Infantry."

"What can I do for you, Lieutenant?" the woman said, the content of the words more polite than the tone in which it was uttered.

Akiban thought that it was the first normal thing she had seen since entering this system: a bored and annoyed bureaucrat. "Ma'am, I'm here with orders to acquire the reset codes for the Parrin FTL comm buoy."

The woman took a moment to study the lieutenant from head to as far down as the desk permitted her to see, then she reached behind her neck and started playing with her dark hair that was loosely tied to a ponytail. "I see."

Akiban felt her insides knot up but didn't allow her mien to betray anything. "Can you please give us these codes or send us to someone who can?"

"Well, I can't just give them to anyone who strides in here, now, can I?" the woman mumbled and returned her attention to her screen.

Akiban pursed her lips. "Ma'am, if you could please direct us to someone who is authorized to give us the codes..."

The woman raised a hand, obviously annoyed. "I've relayed your request. I guess someone from admin staff will be with you shortly." Akiban could see the woman's lips form the words "military types."

"Thank you, ma'am."

"You're welcome." She wasn't.

"By the way," Akiban said, earning a what-now glance from the woman. "Do you have somebody monitoring comm traffic?"

"Of course," the woman replied as if Akiban had just asked the dumbest question ever conceived.

"I see." The lieutenant thought she was doing an admirable job at keeping the sarcasm out of her voice. "Why haven't you responded to the North Cape's communication attempts?"

The woman sighed. "The bastard must have fallen asleep again."

"Wouldn't your VI notify you?" Akiban insisted.

"Yeah, normally, if the Alliance hadn't given us some piece of junk that kept causing malfunctions in the colony equipment. We had to restrict Balance's system access a few days ago—including communications." She was looking at her screen again.

"But you do realize that the local FTL comm buoy is unresponsive?"

Now the woman looked up, the grimace on her face containing a repressed litany of insults. "You do realize that I'm just the receptionist here, don't you?" she hissed, mimicking the lieutenant's tone.

"Of course. I apologize." With that Akiban turned away from the desk and led Alvarez and Vinne out of earshot, back in the direction of the entrance. "So, what do you think?"

Private First Class Marina Alvarez, short and olive-skinned, scratched the back of her head. "Don't know, ma'am. Friendly like a hungry varren, but it'd weird me out more if she was nice."

"Mhm," Private First Class Richard Vinne made. "What I thought. Can't wait to be off this rock."

Akiban nodded, scratching her chin.

"Lieutenant, this is Nakata." He was contacting her on the platoon's command channel which only the two of them shared.

"Go ahead, Nakata," she said in a low voice.

"LT, you know I'm not one to cry wolf, but there is a shitload of people standing there and watching us."

Akiban sighed. "Specify 'shitload.'"

"More than a hundred."

Weird, Akiban thought. Colonists with a garrison fort next-door shouldn't be this curious about military vehicles. And they probably weren't just waiting to get inside the administration building. "Right, just keep them away from the buckets. I don't want anybody to get run over, or get their fingers squeezed in a ramp, or whatever. You know how that looks on the extranet."

"Wilco, LT. Nakata out."

The door on the left behind the desk opened, and a small, slightly overweight man in a suit entered the reception room. He didn't bother walking more than one step inside, a busy expression on his heavyset face, and waved toward the Marines. "You're here for the codes?" he called.

"Yes, we are," Akiban replied, not calling but speaking loud enough for him to understand her.

"Please follow me!" the man shouted.

With a motion of her head Akiban beckoned the riflemen to follow and set out across the room. She thought about saying her thanks to the woman at the desk for a moment but decided against it when she saw her facial expression.

"I'm Gorsin Araden," the man said, eagerly reaching for and shaking Akiban's hand and those of the other two Marines. "I'm responsible for the tech staff around here."

"Lieutenant Akiban. I'm with the Marines who came with the SSV North Cape."

"Interesting," Araden muttered as he led them down a long corridor.

"Mister Araden," Akiban said, "you know why we're here?"

"Yes, the codes, of course," Araden mumbled, scurrying ahead on legs that were too short to maintain both the pace he was setting and any appearance of dignity at the same time.

"Mister Araden, do you know why the North Cape's communication attempts went unanswered when she hailed the colony?" Akiban inquired.

"Yeah, well, comms have been a bit sketchy down here since we had to isolate our VI."

"I see. What about the garrison fort?"

"Uh, I don't know. You didn't reach them?"

"No, we didn't."

They reached the end of the corridor and Araden led them through the door that connected the corridor with another room. There were tables inside, arranged in a circle, with two inactive holoscreens on each, and the walls were covered by shelves that held data carriers. It looked as if there was no other exit out of the room than the door they had just passed; even the floor was covered with a rough gray carpet.

Araden immediately proceeded to turn on one of the holoscreens and, after operating a few controls, he swore. "I'm sorry, the codes are in the system, but they're encrypted and password protected. With the VI offline, I can't authenticate without the dynamic password. I'll go fetch the key right away." He sprang to his feet and hurried out of the room. The door shut close behind him.

Akiban closed her eyes. She felt a slight, dull headache creep up from the base of her skull. When she opened her eyes again, she checked her omni-tool for the local atmospheric pressure; it was just below one bar. For somebody with her training, it certainly wasn't enough to cause unease. She yawned and shook her head.

"I don't think he's coming back," Alvarez muttered after they had waited for almost twenty minutes, her hand resting on her holstered Kessler pistol.

"All right," Akiban said, agreeing with Alvarez. "Vinne. Door."

Vinne nodded and moved over to the door, facing it without standing in front of it.

After sitting down at the holoscreen Araden had left active, Akiban took a moment to identify the type and version of the operating interface. A few seconds later, she reached the access point for the reset codes that required the entry of the password. Her omni-tool could have broken a static password barrier, but there was no point even trying with a dynamic one.

"Nakata, Akiban."

"Go ahead, LT."

"Your engineering expertise is required, Nakata. Go inside, left door back wall, through the door at the end of the corridor, that's where we are. Take someone with you."

"Wilco, LT."

"Akiban out."

Not even a minute had passed when Nakata and Private First Class Thomas Varen, a rifleman of 2nd Squad, came through the door.

"Breaking into the colony's systems? The captain will flay us alive if this turns out to be unjustified," Nakata commented as he sat down at the holoscreen.

Akiban scowled. "They're just yanking us around here. My patience is at an end. Do your job, Nakata."

"Yes, ma'am," he confirmed, admonished, activating his omni-tool and starting to bypass the system.

"How's it looking outside?" Alvarez asked.

"The crowd's doubled," Varen replied. "Gawking like they've never seen Marines before. Men, women, children, all just staring."

They were interrupted by Vinne moaning and massaging the back of his head.

"Headache?" Akiban asked.

"Yes, ma'am. Don't worry, nothing I can't handle."

"Me, too," she said.

"Airborne agent?" Alvarez wondered. "'Cause my head is throbbing, too."

Akiban checked her omni-tool. "Not picking up anything. Maybe it's something in the air here. It's not incapacitating, so walk it off."

"OoRah!" the Marines made, not with much enthusiasm, but mostly because they didn't want to disturb Nakata who was working at the holoscreen.

"Got the codes," he announced a few minutes later.

Akiban nodded. "North Cape, this is Lieutenant Akiban."

No response.

"North Cape, this is Lieutenant Akiban. Come in."

Silence.

"Comms are dead," she said. "Let's get out of here and signal for pick-up."

"Lieutenant, this Huber." The squad leader's voice sounded agitated.

"Go ahead, Huber," Akiban said as she was moving toward the door.

"The people have gone crazy! They're pushing against the Makos!"

Akiban didn't understand what exactly was going on, but she would see it in a minute. They were on their way out. "Just hold them off and prepare for departure. We've got the codes and are on the way!"

"Aye, Lieutenant!"

The five Marines rushed through the corridor, helmets back on their heads, and entered the entrance room where they came to an abrupt halt. The desk was no longer occupied, but Araden and the woman from the reception were standing next to each other, blocking the Marines' way out. They both held pistols in their hands.

That was reason enough for Akiban to fire up the kinetic shields of her armor. The other Marines did the same.

"You cannot leave here," the woman said. Her glassy eyes were staring at them from one and a half heads above Araden's.

Those two with their pistols posed no threat to the fully armored and shielded Marines, but all of this had gone far enough for Akiban's taste.

"Put those weapons on the ground and step aside." She spoke slowly and in a low voice that froze blood in its vessels.

The woman raised her weapon and fired. She was obviously not trained in its use because she held it in one hand, the weapon arm outstretched in front of her. The round missed, sizzling past the Marines between Akiban and Alvarez, and struck the wall behind them.

"Get them!" Akiban hissed.

Alvarez and Vinne darted ahead while Nakata and Varen positioned themselves between the now hostile colonists and the lieutenant. Several more rounds were fired before Alvarez and Vinne finally reached their targets, striking the wall or harmlessly glancing off shields. Then the Marines were all over the man and the woman: Alvarez grabbed the wrist of Araden's weapon arm and pushed it out of the way, followed up with two punches in his face with her free hand, kicked him in the gut once, and finally took the weapon from his hand as he collapsed under her. Vinne forced the woman's weapon arm up and away from himself, elbowed her in the face, and spun the pistol out of her grip. The fight was over only seconds after it had begun, resulting in the two colonists lying on the ground, their arms wrenched painfully behind their backs, the Marines on top of them, holding them down.

"Secure the prisoners," Akiban ordered. "They're coming with us."

"Yes, ma'am!" Alvarez and Vinne replied in unison and started pulling the two defeated colonists to their feet, arms still at painful angles to quell any returning spirit of resistance.

Akiban marched straight to the door and hit the control panel. The door slid open and the lieutenant stepped outside. "Shit."

Where once had been the street along which the platoon had arrived in its Makos, there now was a sea of people. They had swarmed into the area, and the ground was invisible as far as the eye could see; the crowd was not only filling the street but also adjacent side roads and alleys. The Marines had retreated behind the Makos which were now positioned in a semicircle, forming a fortress, rocking back and forth heavily on their soft suspensions as the colonists pressed against them. Their boarding ramps were closed and Marines were holding back colonists who were trying to push through gaps in the improvised wall or crawling under the vehicles.

"Sitrep!" Akiban barked as she approached Huber, who was standing on the stairs with the other squad leaders and gazing out into the sea of people.

"FUBAR, ma'am," Huber said, his rifle in patrol position, left and right hand holding the weapons as if firing—trigger finger extended along the lower receiver—but at forty-five degrees toward the ground and close to the body. "They suddenly started closing in. We barely had time to set up the Makos as a shield. I was just about to report when you came out."

Frowning, Akiban bit her lower lip. This was a mess. Her platoon wasn't equipped for crowd control—and even if it had been, there were at least five hundred people out there. And this wasn't a scenario she had been trained to deal with. There was no standard solution, no procedure to adhere to. She felt like unleashing a litany of curses but managed to bite it back, taking a deep breath instead. She needed to focus.

"Huber, get two sentries inside. I don't want anyone coming at us from behind."

"Ma'am," he confirmed, and sent two of his Marines into the building.

Akiban calmed herself with another deep breath. Her mind reverted into a mode that had been drilled into her in training: break problems that are too complex to solve into smaller ones that you can solve. They had the codes and needed to get off the planet because comms with the North Cape were out. They could fire the signal beacon now, but in their current situation evac would be problematic at best. Who knew how many colonists would be crushed under the frigate or burnt by its thrusters—assuming Cooper wouldn't break off the maneuver when he saw what was happening in the first place. For a second, Akiban considered evacuating from the roof, but she discarded the idea because the building was not tall enough to ameliorate the heat issue. That meant that they had to get out on open ground, preferably the plains outside the colony, or at least away from the crowds. But with all the colonists pressing against the Makos, they wouldn't be driving anywhere anytime soon. She thought about shooting their way out but dropped the thought immediately; those were still their people. Even if they had gone rogue, or insane, or whatever it was that had happened to them, they were civilians. The events here had to be reported to the Alliance, but not at the cost of human lives.

They needed assistance. Fast. Of course there was still the garrison fort. Assuming the Marines there were still operational and sane, they could evacuate Akiban's platoon with their shuttles. Hopefully, the fort had shuttles. It should.

"What the hell is that?" Kara Miles's words tore Akiban out of her reverie. The private first class, 1st Squad's advanced marksman, was observing the area from the top of the stairs through the scope of her Avenger sniper rifle. "Ten o'clock, two hundred meters."

Akiban pulled her rifle from its weapon slot on her back and unfolded it, moving it into ready position to look through the scope in the direction indicated by Miles. The magnification of the Lancer rifle scopes was not as high as that of the sniper rifles; therefore, it took Akiban several seconds of scanning to find the disturbance in the crowd the sniper was referring to. Finally, she found it by tracking its aftermath, a swath of stumbling colonists that led up to a humanoid shape that was violently forcing its way through the crowd and toward the Marines.

"We got geth husks!" Huber screamed. He had found it before she had.

Now Akiban recognized it herself: the blue eyes and tubes, the torn patches of gray skin, the face frozen in the last moment of the victim's agony. She knew them from Alliance intel reports, and she had seen them in action once. She and her platoon had been sent to investigate an outpost which had stopped reporting in during the geth incursions. It had turned out the husks had been the outpost's crew, a platoon of Marines, turned into mindless creatures to kill their former brothers and sisters in arms.

"There's another one!" Miles called. "Eleven o'clock, two hundred fifty meters!"

Marines were already jumping up on the Makos with the help of others to push down colonists who were climbing up the bodies of those who had been crushed against the armors of the APCs[1]. The gun towers of the Makos were turned to face the inside of the fortress to prevent anyone from using the mass accelerator barrels to climb on top. The drivers who were still in their seats could only use the auxiliary cameras to see what was going on outside.

Exhaling forcefully to combat the headache that had been getting worse over the past few minutes, Akiban lowered her weapon. Unlike the colonists, the husks were a major threat. Now the situation was forcing her hand. She had never seen them jump, but with the increasingly large piles of bodies there would be a way across the Mako barricade sooner or later. Once the husks were close enough, they would discharge some weapon they carried that cooked shields and burned flesh. That would harm countless colonists in addition to the Marines.

"Miles, take out the husks."

"Shit! I can't just fire into the crowd!" the private exclaimed.

Akiban clenched her jaw. "That can't be helped. Fire your weapon, Marine!"

The woman was breathing heavily, holding on to her weapon with trembling hands. Akiban knew why—under different circumstances, she would even have sympathized with her. There were clear regulations on when weapons could be used against targets and when firing was to be avoided. For a sniper rifle, it was not allowed to fire the weapon with friendlies or noncombatants within a rectangle of ten times twenty meters in front of the shooter and two hand-widths from the shooter's perspective from there onward. A target in the middle of a crowd was way outside of what was allowed. Further, both Miles and Akiban knew that even if the round hit the target, there was a good chance that the projectile would punch through it and continue on its trajectory into the colonists behind the husk. They were either legally done or dead. Akiban preferred the former.

"Alesz!" Akiban barked. "Husks in the crowd! Neutralize!"

Second Squad's advanced marksman swore viciously and readied his sniper rifle.

"Rodriguez! Get your squad up here!" Akiban shouted.

The gunnery chief led her pairs of snipers up the stairs and positioned them so they could fire over the Makos.

"Husks in the crowd! Kill them!"

Avenger sniper rifles began to howl, sending deadly projectiles on their way, accompanied by swearing. Scowling, Akiban observed the effects of the projectiles on the targets. The husks were tough and took several rounds to bring down while collateral damage wreaked havoc on the colonists. Most rounds found their targets, but the situation grew more chaotic, and the firing more frantic and inaccurate as more and more husks appeared in the crowd, working their way through the masses.

"Shit!" one of the snipers from 4th Squad screamed but kept firing. By chance, Akiban saw why. A colonist had stumbled into his line of fire and had suffered a direct hit to the head. The husk had only been hit by the round post-penetration and a shower of brain matter and skull fragments.

The lieutenant lowered her rifle because the scope was narrowing down her field of vision. She needed to stay on top and keep the overview. A round fired from somewhere in the crowd struck the building somewhere above her head. She and the Marines around her ducked instinctively. Several more rounds followed but were as badly aimed as their predecessor.

"Can you see where it's coming from?" Nakata shouted.

"No way," Rodriguez replied, her voice calmer than anyone around her felt. "At least three different directions, all fired from crowd level."

"Forget the shooters! Just keep the husks away!" Akiban called. The shooters weren't dangerous enough to warrant even more collateral casualties. The situation was FUBAR but stable.

"What the hell..." Rodriguez muttered and lowered her rifle, only to raise it again and look through the scope. "Lieutenant, twelve o'clock, three hundred meters."

Akiban looked, opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again. Something that looked distantly like a husk was pushing its way through the crowd, violently forcing colonists out of the way, crushing others under its mass. It had the surface of a husk, but the shape was off, Akiban thought. She had never seen anything like it before. The torso was tilted to one side, distorted, and grew into a large blue sack that replaced the shoulder, mounting something that looked like a weapon. The entire thing had the mass of about three husks and was tall enough to be well visible in the sea of people. Akiban also noticed something else: None of the colonists showed any reaction to the alien creature near them. Though unlikely, the husks could go unnoticed in a crowd, but this thing certainly couldn't.

"Oh, that thing looks like it wants a hug," she muttered. "Rodriguez, take out that bloated blue thing! Twelve o'clock, two hundred eighty meters!"

The first rounds hit the stalking blue and gray balloon, but it turned out to be much more resilient than it looked, shrugging off the increasing amount of direct hits with no visible effect.

"Lieutenant, that thing doesn't look too impressed!" Rodriguez warned.

"I can see that," Akiban said. She was tempted to authorize the use of heavy weapons, but even a single grenade impact would cause a massacre among the colonists—and there was no guarantee it would take the thing out.

"Just keep firing. Connor, ready that grenade launcher!"

The bulky woman in heavy armor holstered her pistol and pulled the grenade launcher from her back. She swallowed hard and took a deep breath. She didn't like it one bit.

"Easy, Marine," Akiban said. "Fire only on my mark." She looked over at Miles who was now also firing at the husks, though she still seemed very insecure and managed only a low rate of fire. At least her fire team leader, Corporal Daniela Miller, had talked her into firing at all.

The bloated husk was drawing closer. It had now suffered over fifty direct hits and was still going with no visible damage. Meanwhile, the bodies crushed against the Makos were piled so high that Marines on top of the vehicles were fighting off colonists with their bare hands, punching, kicking, and shoving. At least the ramp of bodies wasn't very solid footing, which prevented the crowd from pushing up collectively—probably the last straw that kept the improvised fortress wall from being overrun. On the bright side, there were bodies stuffed under and between the Makos, making the way over the vehicles the only path inside the perimeter.

"Fifty meters!" Rodriguez called when the bloated husk suddenly came to a halt. The weapon on its balloon shoulder uncurled and fired. Colonists—and pieces of them—that had been standing in front of it were now flying through the air in the wake of the rapidly progressing shockwave. What looked like a biotic attack cascaded through the masses of bodies, blasting them out of the way, and hit Mako Three. The vehicle's kinetic barriers flickered and failed as the APC rocked and the Marines who were standing on top thrown off it.

"Heavy weapons!" Akiban screamed. "Kill it! Whatever it takes!"

Connor fired without hesitation, sending a grenade arching toward the large husk. It sailed through the air and hit its target dead on. It detonated on impact, throwing a cloud of dust and smoke in the air, riddling the colonists in the husk's vicinity with shrapnel as the husk itself staggered back.

"Fire again!" Akiban shouted.

Connor complied and hit. The grenade forced the husk back even further and rained even more shrapnel on the colonists nearby. This time, though, the husk returned fire. Another shockwave emerged from its cannon and raced toward the fortress, again in the direction of Three. The Mako's barriers had not regenerated enough to withstand the impact. The vehicle flipped over in a cloud of flying colonists and Marines. Dust dominated everyone's vision as the hit Mako came to a halt on its roof, several meters inside the semicircle of tanks.

"Fire for effect! Weapons free!" Akiban barked as colonists started streaming into the perimeter.

Trying not to place lethal shots, the Marines opened fire, but the one-sided fire fight soon turned into a one-sided brawl with the advantage on the other side as those closest to the Makos were engaged in melee.

"Close the line!" Morand was screaming, forcing the Marines in the front to form a barrier with their bodies and hold on to each other. They managed to close the gap with the assistance of more Marines leaning against their backs and pushing outward.

Akiban coughed, dust in her throat. "Two," she managed, suppressing more gagging. "Kill the big blue husk on your seven. Mass accelerator authorized."

Two's gun tower rotated to the left, zeroed in on the husk, and fired a 155-millimeter slug from its mass accelerator. The round was too fast for anyone to register its travel time, and the impact was instant. The immediate effects were obscured by more dust, but everything within ten meters of the impact was very dead.

"If you see any more of those, just blast them!" Akiban commed, rushing down the stairs. She could now see that two Marines were partially buried under the wreck of Three, and there might yet be more. She grabbed Corporal Wysocki, 3rd Squad, Echo Fire Team Leader, and shouted, "Dig them out!"

"Yes, Lieutenant!" he shouted back, barely audible over the noise of the screams of the Marines and the colonists.

Akiban flinched as Two's mass accelerator fired again. "Nakata!" she called, waving at the platoon non-com. "We need to get the driver out!"

Nakata nodded and ran down the stairs, taking several steps with each stride.

The colonists were pushing, kicking, and punching the Marines who were forming a barricade between the remaining Makos with their bodies. The attacks lacked effect, but that didn't stop the colonists from trying. Screaming, they were clawing at the Marines, trying to tear their helmets off or attempting to land punches between visors and chin guards. The Marines in the back row were holding on to knifes and sidearms of those in the front to prevent them from falling in the colonists' hands—at least the primary weapons in the back slots were relatively safe.

"We need to get outta' here," Nakata urged after he had opened the ramp of the capsized Mako.

"I know!" Akiban growled. Too much had happened too quickly, and the situation had spun out of control. This had turned into a battle, after all. If she remained passive and continued to let the enemy dictate the course of events, they were as good as dead—or worse. She had to gain the initiative and get her platoon out of that mess.

"Squad leaders on me!"

The gunnery chiefs assembled around her, always a wary eye on the human barricade.

"All right, listen up!" She cleared her throat. "We're pulling out. As soon as we've recovered all wounded and everybody is accounted for, we'll mount the buckets and get the hell out of here. We'll need more room, though. Hamann, your squad will fire a barrage of grenades into the crowd, then we'll shoot everybody who is pushing against the barricade. The buckets will move as soon as the pressure ceases. Three is a loss, so Third Squad will split up between Two and Four. The prisoners are going with Second Squad. Questions?"

Silence, tense expressions on their faces.

"Execute."

The wounded Marines were pulled from underneath the flipped Mako—medics cursing at the thoughts of possible consequences—while the squad leaders made sure their squads were ready to move.

"First Squad complete, one wounded" Huber reported.

"Second Squad missing two, two wounded," Morand said.

"Who's missing?" Akiban interrupted.

"Anderson and Rüthemann," Morand said. Corporal Rick Anderson, Charlie Fire Team Leader and Private First Class Patrick Rüthemann, Fire Team Delta heavy weapons operator.

"Shit." Marines didn't just go missing. They must have been snatched by the crowd in the confusion after the second shockwave impact. Akiban forced the pictures of her Marines' fate that her mind was painting away. "Carry on."

"Third Squad complete, one wounded."

"Fourth Squad complete."

"How bad are the injuries?" Akiban asked.

"Jenkins will be fine with a bit of medi-gel, but McCoy is out. She got under the bucket and needs medevac," Morand answered. Second Squad had taken a beating. With Corporal Maria Jenkins hurt and Private First Class Lynne McCoy, medic rifleman, incap in addition to one missing, Fire Team Delta had taken the worst of it.

"Hamann?"

"Matarin's leg got under the Mako. It's not pretty," Hamann said. Private Second Class Alan Matarin was one of 3rd Squads heavy weapon operators.

The lieutenant shook her head. "Make sure the buckets are ready to move. Hamann, get your squad ready to fire," she said, her left hand resting on her grenade pouch.

Hamann nodded and walked off.

After taking a sip from her water tank, Akiban ran over to the Marines that were holding back the crowd. "Marines!" she barked. "On my mark, Third Squad will lay down a barrage of grenades. When pressure ceases, you will open fire at the crowd! Stand by!" She turned around. "Hamann! Fire!"

"Fire!" the squad leader repeated.

Grenades sizzled through the air and over the heads of the barricade, striking somewhere in the tide of colonists.

Akiban raised her rifle to firing position and screamed, "Fire!"

The Marines released each other and, after getting pushed back several meters, opened fire. The unarmed and unarmored colonists stood no chance and were cut down by the dozens in the rain of bursts of projectiles.

Lowering her rifle, Akiban took a grenade from her ammo pouch, armed it, and threw it over the phalanx of Marines and into the crowd. It detonated, but the effect remained obscured by more colonists who were wading over the field of bodies to reestablish the pressure.

"Mount vehicles!" Akiban barked.

The three remaining Makos moved, lowering their boarding ramps. Marines started embarking in the chaos, pushing into the infantry compartments. Those in last—squad leaders, fire team leaders, and Akiban—waited at the bases of the ramps, counting Marines as they rushed in and covering the sides. When all her Marines were in, Akiban ran up the ramp, sat down, and hit the controls to raise it. She checked her HUD; all four squads were awaiting orders.

"All vehicles, go! Go! Go!" she commed.

The three Makos reversed for a few meters, then accelerated and plowed into the mass of colonists. Akiban barely managed to strap herself in as the driver, Private First Class Jennifer Gilmore, hit the thrusters, raising the Mako over the growing pile of bodies in its front. It landed softly, probably on more colonists, and continued on its bumpy way. From the inside, it felt like traversing uneven terrain. Soon the three Makos were out of the fray, and their wheels were finally rolling over the hard surface of the street rather than the bodies of colonists.

Akiban allowed herself to relax a bit and only now realized how bad her headache had gotten. She grimaced but resisted the urge to tear off her helmet and massage the back of her head. On her left, somebody started coughing, then retched and vomited.

"Sorry, I'm not feeling so well." Connor's voice.

"Just clean it up, for fuck's sake," Corporal Mike Arden, Bravo Fire Team Leader, moaned.

Akiban rolled her eyes as the smell of vomit shot into her nostrils. Huber, sitting opposite of her, had shoved a gloved hand under his visor and was pressing a finger against the bridge of his nose between the eyes. Looking around, Akiban could see that none of the Marines appeared to be in good shape.

"Is there anyone who doesn't have a headache here?" she muttered.

Everybody remained silent.

"Great."

Suddenly, Miles started coughing and vomited as well. Her last meal was greeted with half-heartedly disgusted moans.

Giving Huber's technique of combating the headache a shot, Akiban activated the comms. "Gilmore, Akiban."

"Yes, Lieutenant?"

"Fire the signal beacon as soon as we're clear of the city."

"Aye, ma'am."

Akiban didn't bother to check out. Only now did it start to dawn on her what had happened. It was reminiscent of waking up after a night of drinking, the head throbbing from hangover, and memories one didn't want starting to surface. She had ordered her Marines to fire at civilians. She had authorized the use of heavy weapons and mass accelerators. She had even thrown a grenade right into the mass of people. These thoughts were grinding her head in addition to the ache. Her career was over, and so were those of many of her Marines—if not of all of them. The incident would draw an investigation in its wake, and there was no way that would end well for her and her platoon. It was funny, she thought, how she willingly risked her life as a Marine, but the prospect of her career ending filled her with dread.

Grimacing, Akiban now pressed two fingers against her skull. Nausea spread in her stomach and she barely managed to keep her meal in.

Gilmore let the automatic reload system of the Mako's mass accelerator switch the ammo type, removing the slug and loading the signal beacon instead. She toggled down the power so the beacon wouldn't get torn apart and fired it.

While Akiban was not looking forward to making her report to Captain Cooper, she thought that everything was better than staying on this all-forsaken rock. She straightened in her seat and leaned her head back, thankful that at least the headache seemed to subside. Only now that her thoughts were clearing up as the adrenaline disappeared from her system did Akiban manage to be surprised at her own violent reaction. It had been pure frenzy. The husks had made her mind snap, and while she had been busy analyzing the tactical situation, she had subconsciously shifted the colonists into the enemy camp, considering them enemy assets from there on.

"I can see the North Cape," Gilmore announced on the squad's comm channel. "They're coming in pretty hot. Looks like they're going for a flyby before—"

Akiban didn't hear the rest. The Mako was rocked hard and she was pressed into her seat and toward the front of the vehicle. She didn't see it, but her stomach screamed that the Mako was spinning. She held on to a handle on the ceiling and braced her feet against the far wall. Another shock hit the Mako and Akiban's head snapped back and against the sidewall. She didn't even feel the impact.


[1] APC: Armored Personnel Carrier