The men of the village were milling around outside Ethan's hut, talking in hushed voices.  You could practically taste the anxiety in the air.  Ethan himself was sitting in a corner looking extremely glum.  He cheered up slightly when he saw Lister coming back, "Hey!"

"Hey.  The first lot of them are getting on to the 'Bug now." Lister reported, "They should be taking off in about five minutes."

"Excellent." Ethan sighed with relief.

"What's been going on here?" Lister asked.

"Well, everybody's here now, so I guess that means we have to start filling them in on the situation."

"Do we know the full situation yet?  Has Ace told you what happened over there?"

"He said everything went to plan.  The Cat gave their camp a few pretty accurate rounds from the laser cannons.  Ace seemed quite happy."

"Okay."

            Lister took a deep breath then cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Listen up, guys!"  The murmur of voices died away and everyone turned to Lister.  "I guess you all want to know what's going on," he continued, "So I'll give you a quick summary and we can all get on.  The Furies are ready to launch a full attack on us.  Our best guess is that they'll have reached the plains on the outskirts of the village by tomorrow afternoon."  The murmurs swelled up again, but Lister shushed them and carried on.  "Now, I know that this is all happening a bit sooner than we hoped, but it is not a major problem.  We're ready for them.  The village is being evacuated and we've already launched a successful counter attack via an airstrike, so we're doing okay!  Now, I want everyone to go to the armoury and start getting kitted out.  And I don't want to hear any bloody squabbling either!  We're all in the same boat, the last thing we need is for you lot to start thumping each other over who gets the shiniest shield, alright?"

            The men tittered and started to make their way across to the armoury.  Lister let out his breath, "Phew.  Well, that didn't go so badly."

"You were great," Ethan said warmly.  He looked past Lister and smiled, "Ace is coming back.  It's a shame he only just missed your speech."

"I'm sure he'll get over it," Lister smiled.  Ace joined them outside the hut,

"Everything going alright, fellas?"

"I think so," Lister said, "They didn't panic when we told them what was happening; that's the most important thing."

"Splendid.  You think they can take care of themselves for a bit while we step inside?"

"I think so."

"Good.  Because we, my dear compadres, have a battle to plan."