On the Oceans of Eternity

Verger felt a bubble of laughter grunt out through his throat. It wasn't quite a warrior's laughing scorn for death… but it was close enough to be satisfying, despite the nausea that was twisting at his gut. Then he sensed the presence of someone else and grabbed for the bayonet on his belt; there were three dark figures-

"Calm down, Marine," a voice said-Ritter's voice. "Time for extraction."

Hard hands gripped his harness and lifted; something pricked him in one buttock, and a flood of relief went over him as the pain receded like a wave of fire rolling back from a beach. The last of the flares was burning down, but he could see Ritter stooping, taking Rueteklo over her shoulders in a fireman's lift. The man carrying him turned, and he got a twisting panoramic view of the marsh, a few fires lit by backblast still smoking-red among the reeds. Then the fortress, flames licking upward from gunports and slit windows, with a crackle of small-arms fire from the parapet despite it all. Then lines of red stabbed out from the river-the Gatlings mounted on pivots above the paddle boxes of a gunboat, the thudump of the light ca

Into the inflated boat again, his rocket launcher on one side, Rueteklo on the other; the rest of their squad pushing hard until they reached the few inches of water necessary to float it, then piling in and wielding their paddles.

"Thanks… oath-sister," he said slowly, feeling himself floating away.

"Semper Fi."

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

December, 10 A.E. - West-central Anatolia

November, 10 A.E. - Great River, southern Iberia

December, 10 A.E. - West-central Anatolia

e!" Ke

The bugle screamed and Marines threw themselves forward through the snow, slipping and stumbling on the muddy rocks below, still somehow keeping their order. From a height a little behind him a Gatling crew got their weapon into operation, its muzzles a continuous red flicker through the snow. Seconds later the line halted for an instant and fired point-blank into the confused mass of enemy infantry milling around the base of the hill, throwing grenades and firing rocket launchers point-blank as well; there were hundreds of them…

Maybe thousands, he thought.

And hundreds of their dead piled around their feet already, before the relief force arrived. They wavered; he could see the collective shudder as they tried to turn and face the new threat, saw the gray exhaustion and fear on those nearest.

"Pour it on!" he heard O'Rourke shout, and his subordinates echoing it. "Pour it on, and they'll break!"

The Islanders pushed forward, advancing by squads, throwing themselves down and firing to support their comrades moving forward. Soon the forward units were close enough to throw grenades as well, and a ca

"Sound charge again!" Hollard called.

The bugles cried, like the distant horns of Elfland through the blizzard. The Marines rose up like a wave out of the earth and flung themselves forward, and the enemy were ru

Hollard ran forward with the rest. A clump of Achaean soldiers rose up in front of him, trying to buy some space for their comrades. Crack, and he felt the hot wind of the muzzle blast on his cheek. He fired the revolver six times and took down two men, dim figures spi

The Nantucketers swept on over the crest of the hill, shooting and stabbing.

"Sound halt," Hollard gasped-the rest of the rocky passage ahead was a blinding whirl of snow. The guns began throwing shells into it. That and the Gatlings firing ahead ought to keep the enemy ru

The Mita

"You great shambling Fiernan gowk," he heard her mumble, half grief and half anger. "You went and got yourself killed."

Then he was at the summit, amid the ruins of foxholes and the craters of a rocket bombardment-they were almost close enough to step from one to the next. The surviving Mita

"She lives?" Hollard said.

Tekhip-tilla looked up at him, tears freezing on his cheeks. "She lives-if you can call it that, Great General," he spat. "But I do not think she will live for long. And would she wish to, like this?"

Hollard looked down at the glistening mass of blood across the side of Raupasha's face, and swallowed again.

"Corpsman!" he called sharply. "Corpsman here."

The stretcher-bearers came at the run. Tekhip-tilla made as if to accompany them.

"No," Hollard said, barring his way with the blade of his katana. "You can do nothing there."

"I can be by my ruler's side!"

"You can continue the work she was hurt to do," he said sharply. "Or will you leave your countrymen in wreck? Get your men together-help us see to the wounded-everything to your chariots and pull back to base."

Tekhip-tilla nodded once, with the look of a man biting down on an upalatable truth, then stalked away and began to shout orders, shaking stu