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Yet there was an obvious choke point. Just as the modern military machine endeavored to gain advantage at the begi
Both sides had built large stockpiles for that time, but with a strategy quite different from that of the Waning Years and the begi
This ramp led to a Tiefer outreach depot. There were others along the front, but this was the rear-echelon depot that would support their maneuver force. Without it, the best of the Tiefer troops would be compelled to stay out of combat. Tiefer forward elements at the point of the Crown's advance would have no backup. Lands Command figured that destroying the depot would force a favorable armistice, or a string of easy victories for the Crown's armies. Four soldiers and some subtle vandalism might just be enough to do it.
...If they didn't freeze trying to get down this ramp. There were wisps of airsnow on the steps, and an occasional shred of brush that had grown between the flags, but that was all. Now when they stopped, it was to pass forward pails of sludge from the sled that Nizhnimor and U
Up ahead glowed an oval of light. The end of the tu
Hrunkner gathered them together, so they could all hear him. "I'll bet they'll have forward guards out here within an hour of First Sunlight, but now it's just ours for the taking....Okay, we top off our pa
Gil Haven had weaved his way down the steps like a drunkard with broken feet. It looked to Sherkaner that his suit failure had extended back to his walking feet. But he straightened at U
And so they had come to the point of it all. They disco
Three hours later they were almost a mile north of the depot. U
They had almost made it. Almost. Gil Haven was delirious and strangely frantic when they finished at the depot. He tried to leave the depot on his own. "Gotta find a place to dig." He said the words again and again, struggling against Nizhnimor and U
"That's where we're going now, Gil. Hang on." U
"He's got more spirit than before," said Sherkaner. Haven was bouncing around like a cobber on wooden legs.
"I don't think he can feel the pain anymore." Hrunk's reply was faint but clear. "That's not what worries me. I think he's sliding into Wanderdeep."
Rapture of the Dark. It was the mad panic that took cobbers when the i
"Damn." The word was muffled, chopped as U
After two hours, they had barely reached the hills beyond the depot. Twice, Gil had broken free, each time more frantic, to run toward the false promise of the steep defiles alongside their path. Each time, Amber had dragged him back, tried to reason with him. But Gil didn't know where he was anymore, and his thrashing had torn his suit in several places. Parts of him were stiff and frozen.
The end had come when they reached the first of the hard climbs. They had to leave the sled behind; the rest of the way would be with just the air and exotherms they could carry in their pa
The three of them stood in stupefied paralysis for a moment; then Amber began to sidle over the edge, her legs feeling down through the airsnow for some purchase on the rocks beneath. U
"No, let me go! Frozen he has a chance. We just have to carry him with us."
Underhill leaned over the drop-off, took a long look below. Gil had hit naked rocks on his way down. The body lay still. If he wasn't already dead, desiccation and partial freezing would kill him before they could even get the body back to the path.
Hrunkner must have seen it too. "He's gone, Amber," he said gently. Then his sergeant's voice returned. "And we still have a mission."