“Let’s hope Mipp can distract them without getting his ass blown off," Yalson said.
“Maybe we should call it off," Rava Gamdol said. “Think we ought to call it off. Do you think we should call it off. Does
anybody—"
“NO!" “YES!" “NO!" shouted three voices, almost in unison. Everybody looked at the three Bratsilakins. The two outer Bratsilakins
turned
their helmets to look at the one in the middle, as the shuttle swooped again. The middle Bratsilakin’s helmet turned
briefly to each side. “Oh,
shit," a voice said over the open channel, “all right: NO!"
“I think maybe we should—" Rava Gamdol’s voice started again.
Then Kraiklyn shouted, “Here we go! Everybody ready!"
The shuttle braked hard, banking steeply one way, then the other, shuddering once and dipping. It bounced and shook, and for
a second
Horza thought they were crashing, but then the craft slid to a stop and the rear doors jawed open. Horza was on his
feet with the rest of them,
piling out of the shuttle and into the jungle.
They were in a clearing. At its far end a few branches and twigs were still tumbling from huge, heavy-looking trees where
the shuttle had just
seconds before torn through the edge of the forest canopy as it dipped in for the small area of level,
grassy ground. Horza had time to see a
couple of bright birds flying fast out of the trees nearby and caught a glimpse of
a blue-pink sky. Then he was running with the others, round the
front of the shuttle where it still glowed dark red and vegetation
beneath it smoldered, and on into the jungle. A few of the Company were using
their AG, floating over the undergrowth between
the moss-covered tree trunks, but hampered by creepers which hung like thick, flower-strewn
ropes between the trees.
So far they still couldn’t see the Temple of Light, but according to Kraiklyn it was just ahead of them. Horza looked round
at the others on
foot as they clambered over fallen trees covered in moss and swept past creepers and suspended roots.
“Fuck dispersing; this is too hard going." It was Lamm’s voice. Horza looked round and up, and saw the black suit heading
vertically for the
green mass of foliage above them.
“Bastard," said a breathless voice.
“Yeah. B-b-bastard," Lenipobra agreed.
“Lamm," Kraiklyn said, “you son of a bitch, don’t break through up there. Spread out. Disperse, damn it!"
Then a shock wave Horza could feel through his suit blasted over them all. Horza hit the ground immediately and lay there.
Another boom
came through the hissing helmet speaker as it fed in the noise from outside.
“That was the
CAT
going over!" He didn’t recognize the voice.
“You sure." Somebody else.
“I saw it through the trees! It was the
CAT!
"
Horza got up and started running again.
“Black bastard nearly took my fucking head off…." Lamm said.
There was light ahead of Horza, through the trunks and leaves. He heard some firing: the sharp crack of projectiles, the sucking
whoop
of
lasers and the snap-
whoosh
-crash of plasma cannon. He ran to a small earth and shrub bank and threw himself down so that he could just see
over the
top. Sure enough, there was the Temple of Light, silhouetted against the dawn, all covered in vines and creepers and moss,
with a few
spires and towers sticking out above like angular tree trunks.
“There she is!" Kraiklyn shouted. Horza looked along the earth bank and saw a few of the Company, in the same prone position
as he was.
“Wubslin! Aviger!" Kraiklyn shouted. “Cover us with the plasmas. Neisin, you keep the micro on each side of the
grounds—beyond, as well.
Everybody else, follow me!"
More or less as one, they were off, over the tangled bank of mossy ground and bushes and down the other side, through light
scrub and
long, cane-like grass, the stalks covered in clinging, dark green moss. The mixture of ground cover came up to about
chest height and made
the going difficult, but it would be reasonably easy to duck down out of a line of fire. Horza waded
through as best as he could. Plasma bolts
sang through the air above them, lighting the dim stretch of ground between them
and the sloping temple wall.
Distant fountains of earth and crashes he could feel through his feet told Horza that Neisin, sober the last two days, was
laying down a
convincing and, more important, accurate fire pattern with the Microhowitzer.
“There’s a little gunfire from the upper left level," the cool, unhurried voice of Jandraligeli said. According to the plan,
he was supposed to be
hiding high in the forest canopy watching the temple. “I’m hitting it now."
“Shit!" somebody yelled suddenly. One of the women. Horza could hear firing from ahead, though there were no flashes from
the part of the
temple he could see.
“Ha ha." Jandraligeli’s smug voice came through the helmet speaker. “Got them!" Horza saw a puff of smoke over to the left
of the temple.
He was about halfway there by now, maybe closer. He could see some of the others not far away, to his left
and right, pushing and striding
through the cane grass and bushes with their rifles held high to one shoulder. They were all
gradually getting covered in the dark green moss,
which Horza supposed might be useful as camouflage (providing, of course,
that it didn’t turn out to be some horrible, previously undiscovered
sentient killer-moss… He told himself to stop being silly).
Loud crashes in the shrubbery around him, and smashed bits of cane and twigs fluttering past like nervous birds, sent him
diving for the
ground. The earth beneath him shuddered. He rolled over and saw flames lick the mossy stalks above; a flickering
patch of fire lay directly
behind him.
“Horza." a voice said. Yalson’s.
“OK," he said. He got up to a crouch and started running through the grass, past bushes and young trees.
“We’re coming in now," Yalson said. She was up in the trees, too, along with Lamm, Jandraligeli and Neisin. According to the
plan, all
except Neisin and Jandraligeli would now start moving through the air on AG toward the temple. Although the anti-gravity
units on their suits
gave them an extra dimension to work with, they could be something of a mixed blessing; while a figure
in the air tended to be harder to hit than
one on the ground, it also tended to attract a lot more fire. The only other person
in the Company with AG was Kraiklyn, but he said he preferred
to use his for surprise or in emergencies, so he was still on
the ground with the rest of them.
“I’m at the walls!" Horza thought it was Odraye’s voice. “This looks all right. The walls are really easy; the moss makes
it—"
Horza’s helmet speaker crackled. He wasn’t sure if there was something wrong with his communicator or if something had happened
to
Odraye.
“—ver me while I’m—"
“—on you useless—" Voices clashed in Horza’s helmet. He kept wading through the cane grass, and thumped the side of his helmet.
“—asshole!" The helmet speaker buzzed, then went silent. Horza swore and stopped, crouching down. He fumbled with the communicator
controls at the side of the helmet, trying to coax the speaker back into life. His too-big gloves hindered him. The speaker
stayed silent. He
cursed again and got to his feet, pushing through the scrub and long grass to the temple wall.
“—rojectiles inside!" a voice yelled suddenly. “This—…—cking simple!" He couldn’t identify the voice, and the speaker went
dead again
immediately.
He arrived at the base of the wall; it slanted out of the scrub at about forty degrees and was covered in moss. Further along,
two of the