Seeing the Elephant

From SSDC, Inc.

Written by: Scott Tulleners

Consultants: Chris Kearney, and Jeremy and Mary Ellen Smith.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank the following people for encouragement, support, and suggestions: My mother and brother Andy, Alan Atzenhoefer, Scott Grimmett, Vickie Hall, Michael Osadciw, and Earl Ryan. I'd also like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for all His Blessings each and every day..

---

There was a flash from behind as Ivan was flung bodily through the air. He landed...

Ivan fought desperately to fill his lungs with air. It came with great effort. The pounding in his head almost made him wish that he were dead. His back and neck felt like they had been scourged, and he couldn't move his arms.

The pounding subsided slowly. Ivan opened his eyes. The clouds were thick overhead. They appeared to be whiter than back home on Hartford. The sky visible through the clouds was deep blue. Back home, the sky had more turquoise. Sunlight streamed in beams through the clouds. They were like the beams of heavenly light he had believed them to be as a child. A faint wisp of black smoke wafted overhead. All was peaceful...

To his left he heard automatic weapons fire. He recognized the staccato of an M-60 machine gun. From the short-burst-short-burst-longer-burst pattern the gunner was firing, it sounded like Randy Andy. Ivan turned his head. A dull pain in his neck made him wince.

Randy Andy was dropping back down behind the fallen tree trunk he was using for cover.

Glancing up the slope to his right, he saw the Lt. lying in the snow. Vardish-Emra's weathered black armor was charred and holed in three places that he could see. The Lt...

He winced as something whacked against his helmet. Randy Andy bellowed over the com-link, 'Ivan. Give me some covering fire.'

Ivan glanced left. A meter down the slope the tall Orion was backed against the large fallen tree trunk as he loaded another belt into his '60. He pulled back on the charging handle, spun up from cover and fired off a burst.

'Ivan. Get down here.'

Shaking his head to clear the ringing from it, Ivan stiffly rolled the short distance to the trunk Andy was behind. He suddenly realized he didn't have his rifle. Ivan began to panic. It was his first combat and he had already lost his FN-FAL.

Glancing around frantically, he saw the black polymer stock sticking out of the snow farther up the slope. With a yell to 'Cover me,' he jumped up and lunged to grab it before sliding back behind the trunk.

He put the safety on, removed the magazine and chambered round, and checked the barrel for debris. It was clear.

From down the hill, he heard the whine of a rapid-firing pulse cannon and the crack and snap of brush as something large and heavy moved through the trees toward them.

Trees splintered about 50 meters down the hill. Ivan glimpsed what appeared to be a gray Cizerack smashing through the saplings. There was something odd about the way it moved. Its shape mimicked the feline race, but its movement lacked the easy grace of a real Cizerack like Sgt. Zakeesa. As it bulldozed its way through the trees, Ivan inhaled sharply. The pirates had ultra armor. A hypervelocity round cracked overhead to punctuate that thought. He blinked away a bead of sweat that dripped in his eye.

Over the com-link, he heard Sgt. Zakeesa's growled order to fall back. Andy bellowed 'Go' and nodded back up the hill. Ivan needed no urging. He ran farther up the hill and dropped behind a tree about 10 yards upslope. Peering around the trunk, he began sighting down slope. To his left he could see Private Volodray running for the cover of a rocky outcrop. Farther down, Private Kwala broke through a small cluster of thick, leafy shrubs. The laser carbine he was carrying in his second pair of arms was useless against the ultra armor, but the pair of smoke grenades he fired from his magazine-fed grenade launcher proved more useful. The thick smoke obscured the ultra armor that was crashing through the underbrush toward them. The lanky Ashanti began running for all he was worth from tree to tree, slowing only to fire another smoke round.

Ivan knew he wouldn't do anything significant with his rifle. The 7.62 Nato round his FN-FAL fired wouldn't scratch ultra armor, and the way he was shaking, he doubted he would be able to hit anything at range. He took a few shots anyway. Andy stopped firing and ran past on the left.

The ultra armor cleared the smoke. It was a quadruped crawler design, and fairly heavily armed. The paired weapons pods on it's back swiveled and canted upward. The fallen tree trunk hissed and popped as a rapid-fire stream of crimson plasma bisected the trunk. The snow around and on the trunk hissed as it turned to steam at the touch of the plasma.

'Ivan, go.'

Andy's bellowed order drove him to his feet and back up the slope. He ran faster as the tree he had been hiding behind splintered, sizzled, and cracked with a series of plasma hits. He heard it falling behind him and ducked behind another tree.

Farther upslope, Andy fired a pair of short bursts. Ivan ran.

Ivan crossed the top of the ridge and spun behind a stump. He needed to provide what feeble covering fire he could so Andy could break contact. Down the slope, thick billows of smoke hid the ultra armor from view, but he could still hear the occasional burst of plasma fire.

'Andy, go.' As he shouted, Ivan felt a momentary pang of shame. He had forgotten to let Andy know he was covered on his first retreat. Ivan realized his fear had overcome his training. He would not make that mistake again.

'Fall back to rally point.' Sgt. Zakeesa's order was welcome. Once Andy was in place, Ivan wasted no time moving. He and Andy continued to cover each other as they moved down the slope and up the next toward the rally point. As far as he could see, the ultra armor had disengaged.

Keeping his mind off of what had just happened was difficult. He wasn't close to the Lieutenant by any means, but he had never seen anyone die before. Ivan had thought he was prepared to face death. He wasn't.

The squad wasn't equipped to face ultra armor. They had been expecting poorly equipped pirates, not the cutting edge in power armor. Knowing how badly out-classed they were tested his self-discipline. Ivan had to force himself to stop and turn to cover Andy. His instincts told him to keep going.

The rally point was on the next hill in a relatively defensible outcrop of rock. As he and Andy worked their way up the hill, Krahnk, the Python heavy gunner challenged them. Once they had identified themselves, the big lizard waved them through and pointed to a boulder. Unit procedure was for them to plug into landlines if given the chance. It made communications easier in static defensive situations.

They plugged the lines into their commo head jacks and found cover. Sgt. Zakeesa directed Andy to cover the left flank and Ivan the rear.

Ivan found a relatively concealed position with a good field of fire behind a low line of rock. He informed the Cizerack Sgt. that he was in position and settled down to wait. He really wanted to talk to Andy, but Sgt. Zakeesa didn't like unnecessary chatter. Even with the landlines, they couldn't be sure that there weren't any sensors capable of picking up their conversations. It wasn't as much from concern that an unfriendly might pick up on what was said as it was pinpointing their locations by the vibrations of their speech. This wasn't such an issue in environmentally sealed armor, but Ivan and Andy both had open helmets.

Ivan passed the time praying for the strength and the courage not to fail the team. It was his first mission, and he was not doing well. He froze when the ultra armor opened fire. The explosion that had killed the Lieutenant had also thrown him about five or six meters. That was the only thing that kept him from panicking. Trying to force air back into his lungs gave him things other than the ambush to think about.

Privates Volodray and Elandra-emra reported in and Sgt. Zakeesa had them cover the right and front respectively. That left the Lieutenant, who had been confirmed dead by Sgt. Zakeesa, and Private Kwala unaccounted for. Andy reported that he had seen the lanky Ashanti heading for the rally point just before they started down the back of the first hill, but had lost sight of him shortly after that.

Zakeesa asked everyone in turn what they had noticed about the ultra armor. Private Volodray was confirming that the ultra armor mounted a pair of heavy pulse cannons, a gauss rifle, and at least one laser system when Ivan noticed movement in the bushes about fifty meters in front of his position. Zakeesa heard his sharp inhalation and asked, 'Golobitski, report.'

'Movement.' Ivan squinted over his sights and added, 'No positive id.'

He was thankful for his insulated gloves. If he didn't have them on, he'd have to wipe the perspiration from his hands. He didn't want to drop his rifle again. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead and he realized he had forgotten his sweatband. This region of Invodale IV was fairly cold and he hadn't thought it would be necessary. He needed it. It was yet another mistake in a series.

'Silence on the Comm…'

Zakeesa's rebuke startled him. He hadn't intended his snort of disgust to be audible.

A pair of black gloves parted the branches, followed by a second pair. Ivan let out his breath slowly. It was Kwala, he was sure, but he didn't lower his rifle.

A few seconds later, the gray armored Ashanti cautiously stepped through the bushes. His paired hands were held in front and his camou unit was off to allow easier identification. His grenade launcher and laser carbine were slung across his shoulders.

'It's Kwala,' he said as he eased his finger off the trigger.

'Stupid Mudig.' The slur was low, but loud enough for him to hear. Volodray chuckled mirthlessly.

'Silence on the comm…' came Zakeesa's rebuke.

It took Ivan a second to determine that it was Elandra-emra. The Eridani's constant ill will suddenly struck Ivan as humorous, but this time he maintained his silence.

Shaking his head, Ivan couldn't help but smirk. They were in the middle of hostile territory with ultra armor hunting them and the squad's close-combat specialist was taking verbal shots at him. He was getting punchy.

After a few minutes, Zakeesa stated, 'We face a new type of ultra armor. It appears that the smoke blocked the ultra armor's sensors, but we can't be sure of that. I'm unable to raise the command post. Our objective is to get this information to the Captain. We can't face this ultra armor without support. Our order of march is Golobitski on point, Elandra-emra, McTavish, Kwala, me and Volodray. We march in five.'

Ivan acknowledged the orders and began checking his combat load. He had a pair of frag grenades, a white phosphorus grenade, and a pair of smoke grenades. He was carrying 10 magazines for his rifle with an extra box of ammo in his ruck. He had more than the standard load of ammo, but his brother had always recommended that. Ivan had left some other less important things back at base camp to cut down on the weight of his ruck.

His brother had given him a lot of good advice. Sergei had also recommended carrying as little metal as possible. The only metal he carried was in his heirloom kindjal, the Cossack short sword given to him by his grandfather, his FN-FAL, which Sergei had recommended because it had a high percentage of composite parts, and the grenades. Even his pistol and fighting knife were composite.

At Sergei's recommendation, Ivan had actually bought lower-line armor to be able to afford the infiltrator thermal jumpsuit he was wearing under his armor. His composite armor and the jumpsuit were intended to make him very nearly undetectable by either magnetic or thermal sensors. Sergei had described it as a poor man's trick for limiting detection.

Sgt. Zakeesa gave the one-minute warning.

Ivan double-checked to be sure everything was secure and in it's proper place. 'Golobitski, move out.'

'Signing off.' Ivan stated and disconnected his landline. The Sgt. would reel it in for use at the next position they came to.

Cautiously Ivan got up. To his left, he heard Andy shifting his position to provide covering fire.

He began moving down the hill. Behind him, Elandra-emra moved into position. They moved cautiously, watching and listening for the sound of underbrush being crushed or broken, but they heard nothing but the sounds of the local fauna. Ivan toyed with the idea of slinging his rifle. 7.62 Nato wouldn't even scratch the armor of an ultra armor. Of course there were also pirates in the area, and personal arms would be effective against them.

They marched for about an hour before Zakeesa ordered a halt. They found cover close by for a five-minute break.

Ivan ate a food bar and drank from his canteen. He had always heard the best time to drink was just after eating. The food kept the water in the body longer. He knew he needed it. Sweat kept dripping into his eyes.

Zakeesa gave the one-minute warning. Ivan folded the wrapper and stuck it in a cargo pouch. He didn't want to make it easier to track them.

They had been moving for about five minutes when his eyes burned with an afterimage of paired crimson plasma streams bracketing his head. Ivan froze. Behind him he heard a growl of pain from Elandra-emra and a shouted, 'Incoming.' Smoke billowed about 10 meters in front of him. Ivan dropped.

'Ivan. Cut right.'

Andy's yell cut through his haze. Ivan was up and sprinting for all he was worth.

Ivan heard weapons fire behind him. Krahnk bellowed in rage. Ivan ran. Furies pursued him. He ran for his life, lashed on by the terrified voice screaming in his mind.

Andy opened up with his '60. Even through his fear, Ivan realized Andy's M-60 wouldn't touch ultra armor. He couldn't leave his friend to face that thing alone.

Ivan took three more steps and dropped behind a tree. His heart was racing. He shut his eyes and forced himself to take deep breaths. After a few seconds, he worked up the courage to peer back.

Upslope, the ultra armor had moved through the smoke and was engaged with Krahnk. The big Python had gone berserk. He had tossed aside his pulse cannon and was wielding his sword. The massive, intricately decorated blade was definitely not of Python manufacture. A faint glow of red outlined the blade. His two-handed swing cut a chunk out of the 'head' of the ultra armor. He spun off to the side and raised his blade for a second attack.

The ultra armor pivoted and charged Krahnk. The big Python used it's head to vault up onto it's back. He whirled and raised his sword. Using his weight to add to the power of his downward stroke, Krahnk dropped to straddle the ultra armor's thick neck. His massive blade bit deeply into the ultra armor's head. He never got the chance to pull the blade free. The twin pulse cannons mounted on the ultra armor's back swiveled and fired. The blast completely burned through Krahnk's armored torso. His upper body fell away, leaving his legs and hips straddling the ultra armor's neck.

The ultra armor's twin cannons began swiveling in small, slow, jerky arcs. Ivan noticed that the big muzzles seemed to be tracking erratically. The ultra armor turned and began running toward him.

Ivan pressed his back against the tree and covered his head with his hands. He couldn't run. It would run him down. It would kill him. He didn't want to die. He heard the pulse cannons firing. There was an explosion. The ultra armor stopped. It was running again. It was getting closer. He closed his eyes and cowered against the tree.

The ground and tree vibrated as the ultra armor thundered past. Ivan pressed himself harder against the tree. The ultra armor continued moving past him. Ivan opened his eyes in time to see it disappear over the crest of the next ridge. Krahnk's sword was still stuck in its head. Thick smoke trailed from between the twin cannons mounted on its back. Ivan wondered about that, but he couldn't tell what had happened.

It took a few minutes for him to realize it hadn't spotted him. His arms and legs were too rubbery to move. He lay against the tree to regain his strength. Ivan heard slow, cautious steps off to the right. He nearly panicked again when he realized he didn't know where his rifle was. He was very much exposed. His Glock was on his right leg and visible to whomever was approaching. Trying to conceal his motion as much as possible, he slowly started moving his left hand toward the fighting knife sheathed on his left leg. Ivan stopped when he recognized Andy's voice.

'Ivan, are you alive?'

Slowly he sat up. He peered around the tree. Andy grinned and shook his head. He had Ivan's FN-FAL slung crossways across his back so it wouldn't affect his use of his M-60. About 10 meters behind him Kwala was keeping watch, his grenade launcher covering one direction and his laser carbine the other.

Asleep on the job again? Andy asked jovially. Ivan thought it a bit forced.

'You mobile?'

Ivan nodded. 'Yeah.' Then he added in shame. 'Andy, I ran.'

For an instant, an odd expression crossed Andy's face, but before Ivan could identify it, Andy grinned wryly. 'I know. You'll do better next time. Trust me. I have confidence in you.'

Ivan didn't feel any better. Andy had been watching out for him and Ivan had run when Andy needed him. Ivan had always prided himself on his loyalty to his friends. He certainly hadn't lived up to that ideal.

Andy unslung Ivan's rifle.

'I assume you want this?'

Ivan couldn't look him in the eyes as he took it back.

'Thanks.'

With a grin, Andy replied, 'Don't mention it.'

Glancing back up the slope toward where the UA had first opened fire, he asked, 'Where are the others?'

Andy shook his head. 'They're gone.' He added quickly, 'Our four-armed friend has some interesting observations to make.'

They were dead. The rest of the platoon was – gone. He had not been among them long enough to develop a real friendship with anyone but Randy Andy. Ivan glanced dully at Kwala.

The lanky Ashanti moved closer. His long, narrow face and grayish skin always made him seem mournful. As a race, the Ashanti were nicknamed the 'Gaunts' for their slenderness, and Kwala was more slender than most of his species. He commented, 'It is my humble opinion that the pilot is toying with us.'

'Toying?' Ivan burst out incredulously. 'We lost five men and you say he was playing with us?'

Kwala nodded imperturbably. 'She was enjoying the hunt. She sniped the Lt, fired in our general direction a few times without hitting any of us, and left. She sniped Elandra-emra and charged into the midst of us expecting us to scatter. Of course she didn't expect Krahnk to charge her. It never occurred to her that any of us would fight. In her mind, she is the predator and we are her prey.' He paused. 'This attitude is common among ultra armor pilots, and especially Cizeracks. They often believe themselves invincible. This one certainly does. If you'll notice, after her initial shots killed Elandra-emra, she did not fire her gauss rifle again. She also stopped shooting to hit, even though I don't believe her accuracy was suffering. Her fire seemed to be intended to herd us in the direction she wanted us to go. Cizeracks love that feeling of power.' 'Your sprint distracted her long enough for Krahnk to get close enough to use his Quatash. He may not have stopped her, but he did damage her. He kept her attention long enough for Volodray to launch his attack. It may not have destroyed her ultra armor, but it certainly hurt her. She left rather suddenly.' Gradually, Ivan began to regroup mentally. He asked, 'You keep saying 'she.' Why do you believe the pilot is a Cizerack?'

Kwala replied, 'I observed that the UA was a crawler. As you undoubtedly noticed, it has a very smooth gait for an ultra armor, and while clumsier, its movement is still very similar to Sgt. Zakeesa's. The Cizeracks pride themselves on their agility and grace and tend to design such things into their equipment. Another point is its shape. Its hull is rounded and streamlined. The head-like appendage, undoubtedly a sensor suite, is another Cizerack tendency. The cats seem to prefer their ultra armor to have an appearance close to their own. This may be partly because they are quadrupeds, though I have heard it speculated that it is due to a legend they have regarding bipeds.'

Rather impressed with Kwala's observations, Ivan asked, 'We were under fire. How did you notice all that?'

Kwala shrugged. It was an odd motion accentuated by the fact that both sets of shoulders lifted.

'I was not under the same pressure you were, or I might not have noticed many of these details.'

Ivan noticed that Andy rolled his eyes at this. The Ashanti was always so excruciatingly polite. In the three months Ivan had been with the platoon, he had noticed that Andy enjoyed testing Kwala's patience. Despite Andy's best efforts, the Ashanti had never been anything but completely courteous. Ivan half expected Andy to direct a smart remark toward the Ashanti, but Andy remained silent. Despite Andy's reputation as a screw-off, in the field, he was a professional.

Ivan glanced back at Kwala. 'What are we going to do now?'

'I see several options. There are only two passes back to our base camp. We can move fast together and try to slip though to our base camp. We can split up and attempt to do so separately. We can attempt to find a different way to signal our compatriots at the base camp. Finally, we can attempt to trick the Cizerack into a precarious situation and destroy the ultra armor.'

Ivan glanced at Andy. Andy was smiling wryly. Ivan exhaled. He hoped they could not see his hands shaking. He had a feeling that he knew what was going to come next, and he wasn't pleased.

'So what are we going to do?' Ivan asked. As the most experienced member of the team, Kwala had the final decision.

Without hesitation Kwala confirmed his fears.

'I feel it best that we each find a different way back to base camp. Even together, we don't have the firepower to stop the ultra armor. By separating, even if she hunts one or two of us down, it is highly unlikely that she will be able to stop the third.'

Ivan nodded, though he couldn't muster any real enthusiasm. His stomach was churning. He had the feeling that splitting up was a mistake. He didn't want to make any more mistakes. While being by himself reduced his chances of getting anyone else hurt or killed, he would be more responsible for the completion of the mission. After his performance so far, the confidence he had felt at the onset of the mission was gone.

Andy seemed to notice his fears. He grinned and slapped his shoulder with the back of his hand.

'You'll do fine.' His grin grew wider. 'Just remember, you're the only one in the platoon who ever beat Elendra-Emra with a blade. He's been pissed about that ever since.' His smile became positively wolfish. 'I loved watching you shove your 'inferior Mudig waste of metal' into his chest.'

Ivan couldn't help but smile at that. The warriors of Eridine prided themselves on their fighting prowess, especially with blades of any kind. Losing to a human had not set well with the proud warrior. In Eridani eyes, humans were inferior. Kwala interjected, 'Though I am not well-versed in the use of swords, I did recognize the canny strategy of playing on his pride to set up the victory conditions to allow you the victory in the event you both 'died. That alone was worthy of the Champion Dhatahash, who single-handedly…'

Andy interrupted him. 'I'm sure Ivan appreciates being compared to Data-hash, but this isn't the time for such stories. Right now we need to get moving. We don't have much time.'

With a shallow bow, Kwala replied, 'Of course you are correct. I ask you to forgive my...

'Not a problem, Kwala. Do you want to head south or do you want me to?'

'I am the most heavily armed and armored. I will take the more challenging path.'

Andy turned to Ivan. 'I'll take the middle, and we'll leave you to head North and over. There's better cover that way.' He grinned and slipped into a Scottish brogue. 'You'll do fine, my wee tricky bairn. Just keep your head.'

He pulled small rectangular box out of a cargo pouch and tossed it to Ivan. 'If you run into our playful kitten, just remember to keep your string handy. Kittens love to play with string.'

Ivan nodded glumly. He didn't want to think about that ultra armor. Glancing at the box Andy had tossed him, he recognized it as a reel of razor wire. The ultra-fine wire was hard to work with, but made a fantastic garrote. Andy had just given him enough to equip an entire company. He offered the reel back to Andy, but Andy shook his head and grinned.

'Keep it. It may come in handy.'

He watched as Andy and Kwala moved off. Kwala started south. He walked just below the crest of the ridge to avoid being silhouetted, his grenade launcher and laser carbine covering left and right respectively. Andy started down the slope. Ivan watched him walk for a minute before he turned and trudged away.

---

Ivan Golobitski stepped over a log and paused. Glancing around, as far as he could see the area was clear. He was moving just below the ridgeline through a forest of young trees. There were a few centimeters of snow on the ground, so he was leaving tracks. There was little he could do about that. The bare patches were few and far between.

Despite the cold, he was sweating profusely from stress and exertion. He was alone in enemy territory and he was not happy about that. After his squad was ambushed by an ultra armor, the two other survivors had decided that they should split up and make their individual ways back to base camp. With the ultra armor dogging their tracks, splitting up had seemed to offer the best chance to complete their mission. He still thought splitting up was a bad idea.

It would have been a pleasant walk if the situation had been different. The pale sun, though not the bright yellow of Earth or the more muted yellow of Hartford, still brought back happy memories of home. The sunlight filtered through the trees, and aside from the fact that the needles were thicker than any pine he had ever seen, he could have mistaken it for a forest from behind his grandparents' house.

The temperature was cold enough to cause his breath to steam, but that was still warm for Invodale IV. He would not have been cold anyway. Under his armor he was wearing a jumpsuit designed to reduce heat signature. His brother Sergei had suggested the jumpsuit and a ceramic-based armor as a poor man's way of reducing the chance of detection. The jumpsuit had the additional benefit of keeping his temperature stable. The idea of a pure-born Russian cold in a mere Ð5 Celsius was embarrassing.

An hour passed and he heard a series of faint explosions to the south. The rapid succession suggested that it was Kwala's grenade launcher on full auto.

Ivan stopped and listened, praying that Kwala might get away. There was a pause, another explosion, and then silence. He waited a few minutes, but heard nothing else.

He kept moving. There was nothing more he could do. The base camp was at least twenty kilometers to the West. It was going to take him a while to get there. The hills and underbrush would slow him down, but it would also provide cover. He could only hope the ultra armor wouldn't stumble onto him.

Moving quietly from cover to cover, Ivan kept a careful watch on the crest of the hill. The last thing he wanted was to stumble across the ultra armor, but he also had to keep an eye open for the pirates that they were originally sent to destroy.

As he marched, he began to hear the songs of several of the local 'birds.' Hearing the animals picked up his spirits. He didn't believe they would be singing and rooting around if something as big and scary as an ultra armor was tromping around through the area.

Ivan had to remind himself to stay on his toes. He had always enjoyed walking in the woods. He had loved the smells and noises. The occasional glimpse of some furry mammal-looking critter rooting for food brought back memories of his childhood. The rolling hills were just like the hills behind his grandparent's home. Ivan kept waiting for his younger brother Dmitry to throw a snowball from behind one of the trees.

He had been marching for some time before he heard the cracking of a number of trees being run over in the distance. Ivan knelt swiftly and froze. He slowed his breathing as he tried to determine the direction of the noise. He heard nothing.

Sweat dripped into his eyes and he blinked it away. He still couldn't hear anything. Vainly he looked around, searching for movement or some indication that something was out there.

After several of the proverbial hour-long minutes passed, Ivan slowly moved on. He listened carefully, but heard nothing.

Ivan paused at the top of the hill before starting down. He didn't see anything threatening. As he started climbing the next hill, he realized this hill was much steeper than the last. For a few minutes he debated on whether or not to move farther down to where the slope was less pronounced. After a few seconds of indecision, he chose to try the incline.

At first he had little difficulty, but presently he began to have problems maintaining his footing. Rather than risking a fall, Ivan decided to walk farther down the hill before cresting it. He angled down the hill and began to cautiously work his way around an area of fallen rocks.

The incline leveled out. He had walked only a few meters when he noticed the large, splay-toed footprint of the ultra armor leading through the scree. Ivan froze as he followed the tracks with his eyes. The trail was clear in the snow. It led to a fairly dense stand of trees. There, through the path it had crushed to get into the thicket, sat the ultra armor.

It was angled away from him and squatting like a cat about to pounce. The sensor suite mounted in the 'head' was moving in small arcs as it scanned the area. Ivan noticed Krahnk's sword was no longer embedded in the armor of its head. The cat had probably gotten out to remove it. Idly he wished he could have been there when it had dismounted. A few rounds of 7.62 Nato from his rifle would have ended this issue quickly.

On it's back, the bottom of the streamlined pods containing the twin pulse cannons were charred and blackened, as though a shot had impacted between the body and the weapons pods. He suspected that the blast had damaged the rotation ring of the weapons pods. The pods were moving slower than they had been, and every so often it stuck. Even so, the twin pulse cannons appeared functional. He didn't want to verify that.

Ivan wasn't sure who had gotten the hit. Aside from the Lieutenant, and Elendra-Emra, no one in the squad carried anything that could pierce its armor. Kwala, one of the other survivors, had made a comment that lead him to believe it might have been Volodray.

Slowly, he moved up and hid behind the tree that was in front of him. He suspected that the ultra armor had detected him, but having a few trees in front to provide soft cover was always a good idea.

He waited for a few moments with no response from the ultra armor. Ivan blinked the sweat from his eyes. It seemed like a steady trickle was running down his forehead. He resisted the urge to attempt to sneak away, knowing any further movement would only increase the chance that it would see him.

After waiting for a while, Ivan glanced at the chronometer built into his helmet. Twenty minutes had passed. He couldn't keep this waiting up for much longer. His back and legs were starting to burn.

Ten minutes later, the ultra armor shifted to its right. It charged out of the stand of trees, snapping them effortlessly as it fired on the march. The twin streams of plasma raked the side of the hill, but the tree Ivan was using for cover obscured the target. He didn't want to peer around and risk being spotted by its motion sensors. As the ultra armor crested the hill, Ivan took advantage of his chance to escape and moved back in the direction he had come.

Ivan continued moving for about twenty minutes before he decided he was away from immediate danger. He couldn't hear anything, which he found both nerve-wracking and reassuring. It was the realization that he had stumbled onto the ultra armor without seeing it that bothered him. He had completely missed it in the trees.

On the positive side, the ultra armor had not reacted to his presence which meant the pilot was either toying with him or had missed him completely. He could believe the former. Kwala had commented that the ultra armor's design and behavior indicated a Cizerack pilot. Ivan hoped for the latter. If that were the case, then he might be able to strike a blow before it killed him.

As he marched, he realized suddenly that the idea that he was going to die didn't bother him as much as it had. That realization startled him. What was beginning to annoy him was the idea that he might not be able to strike a blow. He was not used to thinking of himself as helpless. His grandfather had instilled in him a great deal of pride in the Golobitski martial tradition. His kindjal was a physical reminder of this tradition. It was a Cossack weapon, and since the Golobitski were not Cossack, the only way for the original Golobiskis to get one was to take it as a trophy from its Cossack owner.

On a whim, he pulled the weapon. It was a simple but effective blade. It was about half a meter long, with a wide, double-edged blade. He kept the outside edge nearly razored. The inside he used for coarse cutting, so he kept that machete sharp. Its fuller, a pair of narrow metal strips on both sides of the blade running from the grips to the sharp point strengthened and reinforced the blade. The grips were made of Maladarn Oak. Designed strictly for offense, it had no hand protection at all. It was a highly utilitarian weapon, and while it was useful for a variety of tasks, it was designed as a weapon.

Before he had shipped out for basic training, his grandfather had likened the weapon to the family. Golobitskis had fought against Napoleon. They had been among the defenders at Stalingrad. The Golobitskis were as unyielding and relentless as the Russian winter. Their history was a source of great pride for the entire family. Ivan had been trained to always look for the options. Golobitskis didn't give up. The very thought of giving up was offensive to him. Filled with a new determination, Ivan quickened his step.

The ground became rockier as he swung north, and the trees became less dense. It was reassuring to know that he would be better able to see the ultra armor if it came upon him, but it didn't make him feel that much better. If he could see it, it could probably see him and its weapons could hit anything it could see.

As he moved, he began trying to think of ways to damage or take out that ultra armor. Eluding it was the best choice, but he also tried to think of ways to kill it. His grandfather had always said action cures panic. Planning to take action made him feel a bit better.

Kwala had implied that Volodray had done something to damage the ultra armor's pulse cannon pods. They were still functioning, but not as efficiently. The armor was charred, so that would imply extreme heat. Since Volodray's laser rifle would not have done that kind of damage, he might have used a grenade.

Ivan double-checked his grenades. He had a single white-phosphorus grenade. A willie-pete might generate that kind of heat.

The challenge was determining where it would do the most damage and how to get it there. The question was how much it would really do to the ultra armor. He didn't have Kwala's accuracy with thrown weapons, but Volodray didn't either. If Volodray had thrown the grenade, then Ivan was impressed. The man had not shown such accuracy during squad drills.

Another issue was getting the grenade to detonate at the right time. All of his grenades relied on timers. That was fine for stationary targets, but for mobile targets like the ultra armor, they weren't very effective. Impact-detonated grenades, like those from Kwala's grenade launcher, would have been nice. Next time, he vowed, he was going to get and qualify with a grenade launcher.

As far as the damage went, while the grenade had damaged the rotation ring, it hadn't done enough to knock out the rotation of the weapons pods. The chance of Ivan throwing a grenade with enough accuracy to hit something vital was slim. The other option was to find a way to attach the grenade directly to the ring. Even if the armor was not penetrated, the concussion could still warp or bend the superstructure of the...

His retina burned with the crimson afterimage of plasma as it incinerated a swath in the trees to his right. Ivan dove for the ground.

Trees crashed faintly in the distance. Ivan waited for the shots that would end his life.

Glancing through the spindly trunks of the trees, he could see nothing. Ivan blinked as sweat dripped into his eyes.

For several moments there was silence. Then, he heard the splintering of saplings as the heavy armor crashed through the trees on the ridge behind him. As it rushed toward him, Ivan fought to keep his eyes open. He couldn't react if he shut his eyes. The sweat burned. He prayed that the ultra armor wouldn't come close enough to step on him.

As the ultra armor closed with him, Ivan felt the ground vibrating beneath him. It took every ounce of self-discipline not to bolt. The ultra armor became huge as it got closer. The sudden fear that he would be trampled assailed him. Torn between the fear of being trampled and the fear of attracting the armor's attention, Ivan froze. He could only watch wide-eyed as it passed by a few meters to his left. Clods of dirt and snow kicked up by the passing ultra armor landed on him.

This time he was able to observe it a bit more closely. He didn't get a good look, but it appeared that Krahnk's sword had cut deeply into the sensor suite. He hoped it had done major damage. Ivan would have liked to know what kind of sword Krahnk had been using. Kwala had called it a 'Kutash' or something like that.

The ultra armor continued on, and Ivan turned to watch it. It moved up the hill and turned at the crest. It stood there for a minute, waiting. It's head moved side to side. Ivan could almost sense it's 'eyes' searching for him.

Seconds ticked by on his helmet chronometer. Trees crashed to his right. From the sounds of their passage, what he guessed were a few of the local whildobeests had panicked and were fleeing. Their passage attracted the ultra armor's attention also. Several plasma streams destroyed the small herd. Ivan could hear one bleating in pain and terror before a final blast finished it.

Ivan waited. He feared if he moved, that the ultra armor would deal with him as it had dealt with the whildobeests.

The seconds ticked by. Ivan cursed the shortsightedness that made him forget his sweatband. The salt from his perspiration kept burning his eyes.

The ultra armor began shooting. Ivan cowered. As the plasma streams licked out all around him and then moved to his left, he realized it wasn't firing at him. It was trying to flush him as it had flushed the whildobeests. If it had been tracking him, he would be as dead as the charred whildobeests to his right.

Ivan inhaled sharply with the excitement of his realization. The ultra armor's pilot couldn't see him. Whether it was due to his armor and infiltrator jumpsuit, or perhaps the damage done to its sensor suite, or perhaps even some issue he was not aware of, the pilot couldn't see him. He suddenly realized he was smiling.

His epee coach had always said if you looked past your fear and focused on your opponent's action, you could always find their weakness. During his platoon's hand-to-hand training, their close-support specialist, Elandra-emra, had not taken him seriously and had made the same attack twice. For any of Richard's epee students, the second time was fatal. Timing attacks were Richard's specialty. It has been relatively simple for Ivan to time his thrust for the instant that Elandra-emra's blade was out of line and thus not a threat.

Though Ivan couldn't think of how a stop-thrust might translate into this situation, knowing the ultra armor's pilot could pass so close and still not see him raised his confidence considerably. He might be able to evade her after all.

She sat on the hill for about a half an hour before moving off. Ivan watched as she rushed off to the west. He suspected that she was trying to cut him off before he could make it to the pass leading to the Disciples' base camp. That would certainly fit if she had a momentary contact with him, but not enough to fire accurately. The fact that he was still alive suggested that. Now that she had a general idea of his location, it was going to be difficult but not impossible to get past her.

Ivan set off again. This time, the fear that had impelled him forward had been replaced by a wary confidence. Sun Tzu's old maxim of 'Know your enemy and know yourself and you will always triumph' gave him hope. He had an idea of his enemy's weakness, and a good idea of his own strength. It wasn't a foregone conclusion, but he had hope. As long as he didn't get cocky as Elandra-emra had...

He climbed the hill cautiously. Her trail was fairly obvious. He could see the swath of trees knocked down in its path down the slope and up the next.

The slope became steeper halfway down. Ivan had to move laterally to find a less steep path. This took him out of sight of the ultra armor's trail. For a minute, he debated the wisdom of trying to find it again. Not knowing where the ultra armor was disturbed him, but he also realized that the probability was that the pilot was watching her rear. The last thing he wanted to do was to stumble into an ambush. The team was counting on him to make it back to base camp to warn the unit. He didn't believe the base itself was in any danger Ð it was well fortified. The Disciples of Horatius followed the same rock-hard discipline that the legionnaire they were named for had probably followed. Still, to leave an unfriendly ultra armor on the prowl was never a good idea.

After an hour, he came to a ridge that abutted a tall rock outcrop. Ivan glanced up, praying that she didn't have some sort of a jump or flight system. The plateau would make an ideal spotter position or possibly even a firebase. It would be open to air attack, but with air superiority, it would be highly effective if obvious. It would be something to keep in mind for future operations in this area.

When Ivan got to the top of the next hill, he looked down at a cliff. The ridge he was on rose sharply before sloping gently downward and dropping off to what he guestimated was a 25-meter cliff. The outcrop rose on the far side of the clearing. Sparse shrubs and short grasses grew in the roughly triangular down slope. On the far side of the clearing he could see a narrow trail leading along the edge of the rock face. That was where he needed to go to get back to the base camp.

He started to move around a thicket of shrubs and froze. Ivan could feel the hair on the back of his neck bristling. Something wasn't right about that clearing.

Ivan smiled grimly. He could hear his grandfather telling him to listen to his instincts, and his brother Sergei laughing that he was too inexperienced to have instincts.

At a glance, the edge of woods appeared to be untouched. None of the trees or shrubs were crushed. There were no indications that she had passed through. He could hear the sound of critters scurrying around. Nothing seemed amiss. But still, he sensed that something wasn't right.

Carefully he scanned the clearing. For an instant, he thought he saw movement, but it was fleeting. Looking more closely at the area, he noticed what he had first thought was a discoloration in the rock actually appeared to be a number of meters away from the rocks. He glanced to the left of the area. In his peripheral vision, he could just barely make out the ultra armor waited patiently in the middle of the clearing. Ivan froze.

After a minute or two, he realized she hadn't reacted to his presence. He had approached from her left side without anything more than the normal stealth, and she did not seem to know that he was there. Ivan slowly released the breath he had been holding.

He had almost missed her. She had not used her camouflage unit before. Only the armor damage on her weapons pods gave her away.

Ivan was thankful for the spotty bushes and shrubs between them. He suspected that the crest of the ridge and the bushes had masked his approach to her position. Despite the earlier evidence that she couldn't detect him, everything he could use helped.

It was somewhat unsettling to be so close to her. Knowing she could blast him into oblivion with almost no effort was intimidating, but it also gave him a perverse sort of thrill. There was something exhilarating to know that he was so close and yet she couldn't see him. Ivan reminded himself not to get cocky. He had a mission to complete

Knowing what he was looking for made it easier to see her. Her camouflage unit distorted the rocks behind her just slightly. She was squatted down on her haunches like a cat about to pounce. Her head was slowly pivoting from left to right and back as she scanned the area. Ivan noticed a long gray whip antenna that he had not seen before. It extended a number of feet above the camouflaged ultra armor. He suspected that it was a heads-up system designed to allow her to scan an area without being seen. He could just make out the paired pulse cannons on her back mount swiveling in sync with her head.

Ivan studied the damaged area on her weapons pod closely. He guessed the target had been the rotation ring. He didn't think a grenade would have damaged the weapons pods enough to knock them out.

The fact that the damage had broken the coverage of the camouflage system suggested that the camou system used more of a chameleon effect based on the surface of the armor itself. Sergei had told him about some of the new experimental envelopment-field camouflage generators. Ivan was thankful her ultra armor didn't have such a system. He would not have noticed it otherwise.

He debated on whether to try to move back over the crest or whether to stay put, but the idea of moving while under her watchful eyes didn't appeal to him. He decided to stay put.

As he observed the clearing, one thing that bothered him was her lack of a trail. He had been counting on spotting her path by the crushed trees and foliage. The fact that she was on the cliff without any visible trail concerned him. He didn't believe it was possible for her ultra armor to make it over the crest without leaving a trace. It unsettled him to think that her ultra armor might have limited flight or jump capabilities. Evading a flight-capable ultra armor would be that much more difficult. It was still possible he reminded himself. Ivan decided to sit and wait and try to think of ways to get around it.

Ivan was still waiting for her to move over an hour later. Aside from its sensors and the weapons pod, the UA had not twitched. Ivan was beginning to get antsy. He had been lying there nearly motionless and the stress was wearing on him. Any mistake could alert her to his presence. He felt confident that he was well hidden, but he preferred not to push his luck.

One benefit of his inactivity was the confirmation that she did have either a jump or limited flight capability. He had noticed her trail in the snow leading to the base of the cliff just below where she now waited for him.

The time had also led to a new series of options, including one wild scheme that he thought might allow him to damage or even capture the UA.

Sergei had once explained the idea of tamping an explosive charge to maximize its blast. If he could find a way to place his white phosphorus grenade between the two weapons pods, it would do much more damage than even Volodray's grenade had. A frag grenade or two would only help things. That would certainly help cut down its firepower. He wasn't so na•ve as to believe it would stop the UA, but it was a positive step toward doing something.

The option that offered the greatest chance of success for eliminating her was to get her outside of the UA. Even a python would have a difficult time surviving a close range burst of 7.62, and despite their claims to the contrary, Cizeracks were usually not as hardy as either of the Python races. The big question was how to get her out.

Ivan had already rejected the idea of toppling the UA off the cliff as unlikely. He didn't have any explosives or any way to move it. A rockslide would work, but once again he would need explosives he didn't have. Also, that would require him to climb the face of the cliff. He didn't like the idea of exposing himself to her fire.

The UA rose smoothly and moved swiftly forward. The instant the weapons pods cleared the top of the ridge, they canted down and opened fire down the slope. Twin streams of crimson plasma painted long afterimages in Ivan's retina as it blasted something down the other side of the hill. Trees crashed and shrubs fell in a swath as the stream of plasma cut through them. The UA paused momentarily, and fired again.

It backed away from the crest, crouched like a cat, and sprang. Shrubs and saplings bowed and sprang back as the pressure wave from the jump unit pushed the UA into the air. Ivan felt the pressure wave pressing him backward and down and he lowered his head to ride it out. When he looked up, there was no indication that the UA had ever been there. He suspected that the large footpads had left a footprint, but he would have to break cover to check that out.

Crawling to the top of the hill, he peered down, trying to see where the UA had gone.

The UA could not be seen through the trees. A sudden chill shot like a bead of sweat down Ivan's spine. For the nth time that day, he cursed the fact that he had forgotten his sweatband. Either she was toying with him again, or she really believed she had shot him and bounded off. The question was what would she do when she discovered that her target wasn't him. That meant she would either come back, or she would watch the area of this pass. The other possibility was that she might think he had taken another way and be gone altogether. If that were the case, then he would probably have plenty of time to get back to the base camp. Of course if she were watching, with the effectiveness of her camouflage unit, he would never see her before she fired. He would have to make a decision and soon.

He had just decided to try the pass when he heard something overhead. Glancing up, he quickly dropped to the ground. She had returned.

Ivan was thankful for his hesitation. He would have either been caught in the middle of the small clearing or just on the side of the small path if he had been more decisive. The downside of this was he still had to figure out how to get past her to the base camp.

After a few minutes of debating, he decided to back down and try a different way back to the base.

Carefully he began to back down the hill. When the ground leveled out and he had gotten a few hundred meters of foliage between himself and her UA, he stood and began walking.

Ivan walked southeast for a bit to try to get more distance between himself and her UA before angling southwest. He wanted at least one hill between himself and her.

He had been walking for about forty-five minutes when he noticed what appeared to be three bodies lying on the ground. Immediately he took cover behind a tree. After observing for a few minutes, he couldn't find any threats and decided the aggressors were probably gone. The trees and bushes around the corpses were smashed. It looked like there had been a firefight. After debating for a few minutes, he decided to investigate. He hoped to get some information from the carnage.

Cautiously he moved up. As he closed to the nearest body, he recognized the field-muted Disciples of Horatius emblem on the armor. It was Volodray. He had circled back around to where he had panicked and left Randy Andy to face her ultra armor without him.

Ivan forced himself to view the scene. It was difficult for him to view the bodies of his dead squad mates. His stomach was threatening to bring up the meal bar he had eaten earlier. Even if he had not panicked, it was doubtful that he could have changed the outcome. What ate at him was the knowledge that instead of doing anything to support them, he bolted.

The camouflage unit on Volodray's black armor was off of course. His legs and lower torso were crushed in the middle of the ultra armor's footprint. It was a well-aimed attack.

One thing Ivan noticed after a minute was that the trigger finger of Volodray's right hand was missing. Whatever had been used to cut through his armored glove had cauterized the wound. There was no blood. The area around his legs and abdomen was stained a dark red. It caught Ivan's attention because the bloody area around Volodray's legs looked darker than human blood. That would be something to investigate if he...when, he corrected himself. He would investigate that when he got back to base camp.

Struck by a grim insight, Ivan began looking at the tracks around Volodray's body. He recognized Kwala's boot prints, and what he believed were Randy Andy's, but he also recognized a set of feline prints. They led to and from a second set of ultra armor tracks that came from the East. The tracks looked similar, so there were either a pair of the ultra armor in the vicinity, or the original came back for her trophy. It wasn't a pleasant thought either way, but it was good to know what he was up against.

His old fencing instructor had always said anything you can observe about your opponent off the fencing strip could aid you. You just had to recognize the thought process the action suggested.

The idea that the Cizerack ultra armor pilot was a trophy hunter was confirmed when he followed the ultra armor tracks to the upper half of Krahnk's body. The trigger finger of Krahnk's right hand was gone also. It was an unsettling tidbit of information, but it was something that might prove useful under the right circumstances.

Ivan moved on. He walked quickly past the tree where he had hidden. When he came to the point where Randy Andy, Kwala, and he had parted ways, he debated on which way to go. He could follow Kwala's route, knowing that he had run into something unfriendly. He could follow Randy Andy's trail not knowing anything of his friend's fate. He could follow his own again in the hope the ultra armor was not in the clearing any longer.

After a few minutes, he decided to follow Randy Andy's trail. He found it reassuring that he had not heard Randy Andy's M-60. Ivan hoped that might mean the route Randy Andy had followed was relatively clear. Randy Andy might even be waiting for him when he got back to camp. The tall Orion was resourceful. Ivan was sure he had made it. The thought that the success of the mission might rest solely on him alone scared Ivan. He was no longer the cocky tyro he had been starting out. He had seen the elephant, to use one of his grandfather's phrases, but he had run. Now he could no longer run.

Ivan moved cautiously along the trail. He didn't want to walk into an ambush.

---

There was a flash from behind as Ivan was flung bodily through the air. He landed…

Ivan fought desperately to fill his lungs with air. It came with great effort. The pounding in his head almost made him wish that he were dead. His back and neck felt like they had been scourged, and he couldn’t move his arms.

The pounding subsided slowly. Ivan opened his eyes. The clouds were thick overhead. They appeared to be whiter than back home on Hartford. The sky visible through the clouds was deep blue. Back home, the sky had more turquoise. Sunlight streamed in beams through the clouds. They were like the beams of heavenly light he had believed them to be as a child. A faint wisp of black smoke wafted overhead. All was peaceful…

To his left he heard automatic weapons fire. He recognized the staccato of an M-60 machine gun. From the short-burst-short-burst-longer-burst pattern the gunner was firing, it sounded like Randy Andy. Ivan turned his head. A dull pain in his neck made him wince.

Randy Andy was dropping back down behind the fallen tree trunk he was using for cover.

Glancing up the slope to his right, he saw the Lt. lying in the snow. Vardish-Emra’s weathered black armor was charred and holed in three places that he could see. The Lt…

He winced as something whacked against his helmet. Randy Andy bellowed over the com-link, ‘Ivan. Give me some covering fire.’

Ivan glanced left. A meter down the slope the tall Orion was backed against the large fallen tree trunk as he loaded another belt into his ‘60. He pulled back on the charging handle, spun up from cover and fired off a burst.

‘Ivan. Get down here.’

Shaking his head to clear the ringing from it, Ivan stiffly rolled the short distance to the trunk Andy was behind. He suddenly realized he didn’t have his rifle. Ivan began to panic. It was his first combat and he had already lost his FN/Fal.

Glancing around frantically, he saw the black polymer stock sticking out of the snow farther up the slope. With a yell to ‘Cover me,’ he jumped up and lunged to grab it before sliding back behind the trunk.

He put the safety on, removed the magazine and chambered round, and checked the barrel for debris. It was clear.

From down the hill, he heard the whine of a rapid-firing pulse cannon and the crack and snap of brush as something large and heavy moved through the trees toward them.

Trees splintered about 50 meters down the hill. Ivan glimpsed what appeared to be a gray Cizerack smashing through the saplings. There was something odd about the way it moved. Its shape mimicked the feline race, but its movement lacked the easy grace of a real Cizerack like Sgt. Zakeesa. As it bulldozed its way through the trees, Ivan inhaled sharply. The pirates had ultra armor. A hypervelocity round cracked overhead to punctuate that thought. He blinked away a bead of sweat that dripped in his eye.

Over the com-link, he heard Sgt. Zakeesa’s growled order to fall back. Andy bellowed ‘Go’ and nodded back up the hill. Ivan needed no urging. He ran farther up the hill and dropped behind a tree about 10 yards upslope. Peering around the trunk, he began sighting down slope. To his left he could see Private Volodray running for the cover of a rocky outcrop. Farther down, Private Kwala broke through a small cluster of thick, leafy shrubs. The laser carbine he was carrying in his second pair of arms was useless against the ultra armor, but the pair of smoke grenades he fired from his magazine-fed grenade launcher proved more useful. The thick smoke obscured the ultra armor that was crashing through the underbrush toward them. The lanky Ashanti began running for all he was worth from tree to tree, slowing only to fire another smoke round.

Ivan knew he wouldn’t do anything significant with his rifle. The 7.62 Nato round his FN/Fal fired wouldn’t scratch ultra armor, and the way he was shaking, he doubted he would be able to hit anything at range. He took a few shots anyway. Andy stopped firing and ran past on the left.

The ultra armor cleared the smoke. It was a quadruped crawler design, and fairly heavily armed. The paired weapons pods on it’s back swiveled and canted upward. The fallen tree trunk hissed and popped as a rapid-fire stream of crimson plasma bisected the trunk. The snow around and on the trunk hissed as it turned to steam at the touch of the plasma.

‘Ivan, go.’

Andy’s bellowed order drove him to his feet and back up the slope. He ran faster as the tree he had been hiding behind splintered, sizzled, and cracked with a series of plasma hits. He heard it falling behind him and ducked behind another tree.

Farther upslope, Andy fired a pair of short bursts. Ivan ran.

Ivan crossed the top of the ridge and spun behind a stump. He needed to provide what feeble covering fire he could so Andy could break contact. Down the slope, thick billows of smoke hid the ultra armor from view, but he could still hear the occasional burst of plasma fire.

‘Andy, go.’ As he shouted, Ivan felt a momentary pang of shame. He had forgotten to let Andy know he was covered on his first retreat. Ivan realized his fear had overcome his training. He would not make that mistake again.

‘Fall back to rally point.’ Sgt. Zakeesa’s order was welcome. Once Andy was in place, Ivan wasted no time moving. He and Andy continued to cover each other as they moved down the slope and up the next toward the rally point. As far as he could see, the ultra armor had disengaged.

Keeping his mind off of what had just happened was difficult. He wasn’t close to the Lieutenant by any means, but he had never seen anyone die before. Ivan had thought he was prepared to face death. He wasn’t.

The squad wasn’t equipped to face ultra armor. They had been expecting poorly equipped pirates, not the cutting edge in power armor. Knowing how badly out-classed they were tested his self-discipline. Ivan had to force himself to stop and turn to cover Andy. His instincts told him to keep going.

The rally point was on the next hill in a relatively defensible outcrop of rock. As he and Andy worked their way up the hill, Krahnk, the Python heavy gunner challenged them. Once they had identified themselves, the big lizard waved them through and pointed to a boulder. Unit procedure was for them to plug into landlines if given the chance. It made communications easier in static defensive situations.

They plugged the lines into their commo head jacks and found cover. Sgt. Zakeesa directed Andy to cover the left flank and Ivan the rear.

Ivan found a relatively concealed position with a good field of fire behind a low line of rock. He informed the Cizerack Sgt. that he was in position and settled down to wait. He really wanted to talk to Andy, but Sgt. Zakeesa didn’t like unnecessary chatter. Even with the landlines, they couldn’t be sure that there weren’t any sensors capable of picking up their conversations. It wasn’t as much from concern that an unfriendly might pick up on what was said as it was pinpointing their locations by the vibrations of their speech. This wasn’t such an issue in environmentally sealed armor, but Ivan and Andy both had open helmets.

Ivan passed the time praying for the strength and the courage not to fail the team. It was his first mission, and he was not doing well. He froze when the ultra armor opened fire. The explosion that had killed the Lieutenant had also thrown him about five or six meters. That was the only thing that kept him from panicking. Trying to force air back into his lungs gave him things other than the ambush to think about.

Privates Volodray and Elandra-emra reported in and Sgt. Zakeesa had them cover the right and front respectively. That left the Lieutenant, who had been confirmed dead by Sgt. Zakeesa, and Private Kwala unaccounted for. Andy reported that he had seen the lanky Ashanti heading for the rally point just before they started down the back of the first hill, but had lost sight of him shortly after that.

Zakeesa asked everyone in turn what they had noticed about the ultra armor. Private Volodray was confirming that the ultra armor mounted a pair of heavy pulse cannons, a gauss rifle, and at least one laser system when Ivan noticed movement in the bushes about fifty meters in front of his position. Zakeesa heard his sharp inhalation and asked, ‘Golobitski, report.’

‘Movement.’ Ivan squinted over his sights and added, ‘No positive id.’

He was thankful for his insulated gloves. If he didn’t have them on, he’d have to wipe the perspiration from his hands. He didn’t want to drop his rifle again. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead and he realized he had forgotten his sweatband. This region of Invodale IV was fairly cold and he hadn’t thought it would be necessary. He needed it. It was yet another mistake in a series.

‘Silence on the Comm…’

Zakeesa’s rebuke startled him. He hadn’t intended his snort of disgust to be audible.

A pair of black gloves parted the branches, followed by a second pair. Ivan let out his breath slowly. It was Kwala, he was sure, but he didn’t lower his rifle.

A few seconds later, the gray armored Ashanti cautiously stepped through the bushes. His paired hands were held in front and his camou unit was off to allow easier identification. His grenade launcher and laser carbine were slung across his shoulders.

‘It’s Kwala,’ he said as he eased his finger off the trigger.

‘Stupid Mudig.’ The slur was low, but loud enough for him to hear. Volodray chuckled mirthlessly.

‘Silence on the comm…’ came Zakeesa’s rebuke.

It took Ivan a second to determine that it was Elandra-emra. The Eridani’s constant ill will suddenly struck Ivan as humorous, but this time he maintained his silence.

Shaking his head, Ivan couldn’t help but smirk. They were in the middle of hostile territory with ultra armor hunting them and the squad’s close-combat specialist was taking verbal shots at him. He was getting punchy.

After a few minutes, Zakeesa stated,

‘We face a new type of ultra armor. It appears that the smoke blocked the ultra armor’s sensors, but we can’t be sure of that. I’m unable to raise the command post. Our objective is to get this information to the Captain. We can’t face this ultra armor without support. Our order of march is Golobitski on point, Elandra-emra, McTavish, Kwala, me and Volodray. We march in five.’

Ivan acknowledged the orders and began checking his combat load. He had a pair of frag grenades, a white phosphorus grenade, and a pair of smoke grenades. He was carrying 10 magazines for his rifle with an extra box of ammo in his ruck. He had more than the standard load of ammo, but his brother had always recommended that. Ivan had left some other less important things back at base camp to cut down on the weight of his ruck.

His brother had given him a lot of good advice. Sergei had also recommended carrying as little metal as possible. The only metal he carried was in his heirloom kindjal, the Cossack short sword given to him by his grandfather, his FN/Fal, which Sergei had recommended because it had a high percentage of composite parts, and the grenades. Even his pistol and fighting knife were composite.

At Sergei’s recommendation, Ivan had actually bought lower-line armor to be able to afford the infiltrator thermal jumpsuit he was wearing under his armor. His composite armor and the jumpsuit were intended to make him very nearly undetectable by either magnetic or thermal sensors. Sergei had described it as a poor man’s trick for limiting detection.

Sgt. Zakeesa gave the one-minute warning.

Ivan double-checked to be sure everything was secure and in it’s proper place.

‘Golobitski, move out.’

‘Signing off.’ Ivan stated and disconnected his landline. The Sgt. would reel it in for use at the next position they came to.

Cautiously Ivan got up. To his left, he heard Andy shifting his position to provide covering fire.

He began moving down the hill. Behind him, Elandra-emra moved into position.

They moved cautiously, watching and listening for the sound of underbrush being crushed or broken, but they heard nothing but the sounds of the local fauna. Ivan toyed with the idea of slinging his rifle. 7.62 Nato wouldn’t even scratch the armor of an ultra armor. Of course there were also pirates in the area, and personal arms would be effective against them.

They marched for about an hour before Zakeesa ordered a halt. They found cover close by for a five-minute break.

Ivan ate a food bar and drank from his canteen. He had always heard the best time to drink was just after eating. The food kept the water in the body longer. He knew he needed it. Sweat kept dripping into his eyes.

Zakeesa gave the one-minute warning. Ivan folded the wrapper and stuck it in a cargo pouch. He didn’t want to make it easier to track them.

They had been moving for about five minutes when his eyes burned with an afterimage of paired crimson plasma streams bracketing his head. Ivan froze.

Behind him he heard a growl of pain from Elandra-emra and a shouted, ‘Incoming.’ Smoke billowed about 10 meters in front of him. Ivan dropped.

‘Ivan. Cut right.’

Andy’s yell cut through his haze. Ivan was up and sprinting for all he was worth.

Ivan heard weapons fire behind him. Krahnk bellowed in rage. Ivan ran. Furies pursued him. He ran for his life, lashed on by the terrified voice screaming in his mind.

Andy opened up with his ‘60. Even through his fear, Ivan realized Andy’s M-60 wouldn’t touch ultra armor. He couldn’t leave his friend to face that thing alone.

Ivan took three more steps and dropped behind a tree. His heart was racing. He shut his eyes and forced himself to take deep breaths. After a few seconds, he worked up the courage to peer back.

Upslope, the ultra armor had moved through the smoke and was engaged with Krahnk. The big Python had gone berserk. He had tossed aside his pulse cannon and was wielding his sword. The massive, intricately decorated blade was definitely not of Python manufacture. A faint glow of red outlined the blade. His two-handed swing cut a chunk out of the ‘head’ of the ultra armor. He spun off to the side and raised his blade for a second attack.

The ultra armor pivoted and charged Krahnk. The big Python used it’s head to vault up onto it’s back. He whirled and raised his sword. Using his weight to add to the power of his downward stroke, Krahnk dropped to straddle the ultra armor’s thick neck. His massive blade bit deeply into the ultra armor’s head.

He never got the chance to pull the blade free. The twin pulse cannons mounted on the ultra armor’s back swiveled and fired. The blast completely burned through Krahnk’s armored torso. His upper body fell away, leaving his legs and hips straddling the ultra armor’s neck.

The ultra armor’s twin cannons began swiveling in small, slow, jerky arcs. Ivan noticed that the big muzzles seemed to be tracking erratically.

The ultra armor turned and began running toward him.

Ivan pressed his back against the tree and covered his head with his hands. He couldn’t run. It would run him down. It would kill him. He didn’t want to die. He heard the pulse cannons firing. There was an explosion. The ultra armor stopped. It was running again. It was getting closer. He closed his eyes and cowered against the tree.

The ground and tree vibrated as the ultra armor thundered past. Ivan pressed himself harder against the tree. The ultra armor continued moving past him. Ivan opened his eyes in time to see it disappear over the crest of the next ridge. Krahnk’s sword was still stuck in its head. Thick smoke trailed from between the twin cannons mounted on its back. Ivan wondered about that, but he couldn’t tell what had happened.

It took a few minutes for him to realize it hadn’t spotted him. His arms and legs were too rubbery to move. He lay against the tree to regain his strength.

Ivan heard slow, cautious steps off to the right. He nearly panicked again when he realized he didn’t know where his rifle was. He was very much exposed. His Glock was on his right leg and visible to whomever was approaching. Trying to conceal his motion as much as possible, he slowly started moving his left hand toward the fighting knife sheathed on his left leg. Ivan stopped when he recognized Andy’s voice.

‘Ivan, are you alive?’

Slowly he sat up. He peered around the tree. Andy grinned and shook his head. He had Ivan’s FN/Fal slung crossways across his back so it wouldn’t affect his use of his M-60. About 10 meters behind him Kwala was keeping watch, his grenade launcher covering one direction and his laser carbine the other.

‘Asleep on the job again? Andy asked jovially. Ivan thought it a bit forced. ‘You mobile?’

Ivan nodded. ‘Yeah.’ Then he added in shame. ‘Andy, I ran.’

For an instant, an odd expression crossed Andy’s face, but before Ivan could identify it, Andy grinned wryly. ‘I know. You’ll do better next time. Trust me. I have confidence in you.’

Ivan didn’t feel any better. Andy had been watching out for him and Ivan had run when Andy needed him. Ivan had always prided himself on his loyalty to his friends. He certainly hadn’t lived up to that ideal.

Andy unslung Ivan’s rifle.

‘I assume you want this?’

Ivan couldn’t look him in the eyes as he took it back.

‘Thanks.’

With a grin, Andy replied, ‘Don’t mention it.’

Glancing back up the slope toward where the UA had first opened fire, he asked, ‘Where are the others?’

Andy shook his head. ‘They’re gone.’ He added quickly, ‘Our four-armed friend has some interesting observations to make.’

They were dead. The rest of the platoon was – gone. He had not been among them long enough to develop a real friendship with anyone but Randy Andy. Ivan glanced dully at Kwala.

The lanky Ashanti moved closer. His long, narrow face and grayish skin always made him seem mournful. As a race, the Ashanti were nicknamed the ‘Gaunts’ for their slenderness, and Kwala was more slender than most of his species. He commented, ‘It is my humble opinion that the pilot is toying with us.’

‘Toying?’ Ivan burst out incredulously. ‘We lost five men and you say he was playing with us?’

Kwala nodded imperturbably. ‘She was enjoying the hunt. She sniped the Lt, fired in our general direction a few times without hitting any of us, and left. She sniped Elandra-emra and charged into the midst of us expecting us to scatter. Of course she didn’t expect Krahnk to charge her. It never occurred to her that any of us would fight. In her mind, she is the predator and we are her prey.’

He paused. ‘This attitude is common among ultra armor pilots, and especially Cizeracks. They often believe themselves invincible. This one certainly does. If you’ll notice, after her initial shots killed Elandra-emra, she did not fire her gauss rifle again. She also stopped shooting to hit, even though I don’t believe her accuracy was suffering. Her fire seemed to be intended to herd us in the direction she wanted us to go. Cizeracks love that feeling of power.’

‘Your sprint distracted her long enough for Krahnk to get close enough to use his Quatash. He may not have stopped her, but he did damage her. He kept her attention long enough for Volodray to launch his attack. It may not have destroyed her ultra armor, but it certainly hurt her. She left rather suddenly.’

Gradually, Ivan began to regroup mentally. He asked, ‘You keep saying ‘she.’ Why do you believe the pilot is a Cizerack?’

Kwala replied, ‘I observed that the UA was a crawler. As you undoubtedly noticed, it has a very smooth gait for an ultra armor, and while clumsier, its movement is still very similar to Sgt. Zakeesa’s. The Cizeracks pride themselves on their agility and grace and tend to design such things into their equipment. Another point is its shape. Its hull is rounded and streamlined. The head-like appendage, undoubtedly a sensor suite, is another Cizerack tendency. The cats seem to prefer their ultra armor to have an appearance close to their own. This may be partly because they are quadrupeds, though I have heard it speculated that it is due to a legend they have regarding bipeds.’

Rather impressed with Kwala’s observations, Ivan asked, ‘We were under fire. How did you notice all that?’

Kwala shrugged. It was an odd motion accentuated by the fact that both sets of shoulders lifted.

‘I was not under the same pressure you were, or I might not have noticed many of these details.’

Ivan noticed that Andy rolled his eyes at this. The Ashanti was always so excruciatingly polite. In the three months Ivan had been with the platoon, he had noticed that Andy enjoyed testing Kwala’s patience. Despite Andy’s best efforts, the Ashanti had never been anything but completely courteous. Ivan half expected Andy to direct a smart remark toward the Ashanti, but Andy remained silent. Despite Andy’s reputation as a screw-off, in the field, he was a professional.

Ivan glanced back at Kwala. ‘What are we going to do now?’

‘I see several options. There are only two passes back to our base camp. We can move fast together and try to slip though to our base camp. We can split up and attempt to do so separately. We can attempt to find a different way to signal our compatriots at the base camp. Finally, we can attempt to trick the Cizerack into a precarious situation and destroy the ultra armor.’

Ivan glanced at Andy. Andy was smiling wryly. Ivan exhaled. He hoped they could not see his hands shaking. He had a feeling that he knew what was going to come next, and he wasn’t pleased.

‘So what are we going to do?’ Ivan asked. As the most experienced member of the team, Kwala had the final decision.

Without hesitation Kwala confirmed his fears.

‘I feel it best that we each find a different way back to base camp. Even together, we don’t have the firepower to stop the ultra armor. By separating, even if she hunts one or two of us down, it is highly unlikely that she will be able to stop the third.’

Ivan nodded, though he couldn’t muster any real enthusiasm. His stomach was churning. He had the feeling that splitting up was a mistake. He didn’t want to make any more mistakes. While being by himself reduced his chances of getting anyone else hurt or killed, he would be more responsible for the completion of the mission. After his performance so far, the confidence he had felt at the onset of the mission was gone.

Andy seemed to notice his fears. He grinned and slapped his shoulder with the back of his hand.

‘You’ll do fine.’ His grin grew wider. ‘Just remember, you’re the only one in the platoon who ever beat Elendra-Emra with a blade. He’s been pissed about that ever since.’ His smile became positively wolfish. ‘I loved watching you shove your ‘inferior Mudig waste of metal’ into his chest.’

Ivan couldn’t help but smile at that. The warriors of Eridine prided themselves on their fighting prowess, especially with blades of any kind. Losing to a human had not set well with the proud warrior. In Eridani eyes, humans were inferior.

Kwala interjected, ‘Though I am not well-versed in the use of swords, I did recognize the canny strategy of playing on his pride to set up the victory conditions to allow you the victory in the event you both ‘died. That alone was worthy of the Champion Dhatahash, who single-handedly…’

Andy interrupted him. ‘I’m sure Ivan appreciates being compared to Data-hash, but this isn’t the time for such stories. Right now we need to get moving. We don’t have much time.’

With a shallow bow, Kwala replied, ‘Of course you are correct. I ask you to forgive my…

‘Not a problem, Kwala. Do you want to head south or do you want me to?’

‘I am the most heavily armed and armored. I will take the more challenging path.’

Andy turned to Ivan. ‘I’ll take the middle, and we’ll leave you to head North and over. There’s better cover that way.’ He grinned and slipped into a Scottish brogue. ‘You’ll do fine, my wee tricky bairn. Just keep your head.’

He pulled small rectangular box out of a cargo pouch and tossed it to Ivan. ‘If you run into our playful kitten, just remember to keep your string handy. Kittens love to play with string.’

Ivan nodded glumly. He didn’t want to think about that ultra armor. Glancing at the box Andy had tossed him, he recognized it as a reel of razor wire. The ultra-fine wire was hard to work with, but made a fantastic garrote. Andy had just given him enough to equip an entire company. He offered the reel back to Andy, but Andy shook his head and grinned.

‘Keep it. It may come in handy.’

He watched as Andy and Kwala moved off. Kwala started south. He walked just below the crest of the ridge to avoid being silhouetted, his grenade launcher and laser carbine covering left and right respectively. Andy started down the slope. Ivan watched him walk for a minute before he turned and trudged away.

Ivan Golobitski stepped over a log and paused. Glancing around, as far as he could see the area was clear. He was moving just below the ridgeline through a forest of young trees. There were a few centimeters of snow on the ground, so he was leaving tracks. There was little he could do about that. The bare patches were few and far between.

Despite the cold, he was sweating profusely from stress and exertion. He was alone in enemy territory and he was not happy about that. After his squad was ambushed by an ultra armor, the two other survivors had decided that they should split up and make their individual ways back to base camp. With the ultra armor dogging their tracks, splitting up had seemed to offer the best chance to complete their mission. He still thought splitting up was a bad idea.

It would have been a pleasant walk if the situation had been different. The pale sun, though not the bright yellow of Earth or the more muted yellow of Hartford, still brought back happy memories of home. The sunlight filtered through the trees, and aside from the fact that the needles were thicker than any pine he had ever seen, he could have mistaken it for a forest from behind his grandparents’ house.

The temperature was cold enough to cause his breath to steam, but that was still warm for Invodale IV. He would not have been cold anyway. Under his armor he was wearing a jumpsuit designed to reduce heat signature. His brother Sergei had suggested the jumpsuit and a ceramic-based armor as a poor man’s way of reducing the chance of detection. The jumpsuit had the additional benefit of keeping his temperature stable. The idea of a pure-born Russian cold in a mere –5 Celsius was embarrassing.

An hour passed and he heard a series of faint explosions to the south. The rapid succession suggested that it was Kwala’s grenade launcher on full auto.

Ivan stopped and listened, praying that Kwala might get away. There was a pause, another explosion, and then silence. He waited a few minutes, but heard nothing else.

He kept moving. There was nothing more he could do. The base camp was at least twenty kilometers to the West. It was going to take him a while to get there. The hills and underbrush would slow him down, but it would also provide cover. He could only hope the ultra armor wouldn’t stumble onto him.

Moving quietly from cover to cover, Ivan kept a careful watch on the crest of the hill. The last thing he wanted was to stumble across the ultra armor, but he also had to keep an eye open for the pirates that they were originally sent to destroy.

As he marched, he began to hear the songs of several of the local ‘birds.’ Hearing the animals picked up his spirits. He didn’t believe they would be singing and rooting around if something as big and scary as an ultra armor was tromping around through the area.

Ivan had to remind himself to stay on his toes. He had always enjoyed walking in the woods. He had loved the smells and noises. The occasional glimpse of some furry mammal-looking critter rooting for food brought back memories of his childhood. The rolling hills were just like the hills behind his grandparent’s home. Ivan kept waiting for his younger brother Dmitry to throw a snowball from behind one of the trees.

He had been marching for some time before he heard the cracking of a number of trees being run over in the distance. Ivan knelt swiftly and froze. He slowed his breathing as he tried to determine the direction of the noise. He heard nothing.

Sweat dripped into his eyes and he blinked it away. He still couldn’t hear anything. Vainly he looked around, searching for movement or some indication that something was out there.

After several of the proverbial hour-long minutes passed, Ivan slowly moved on. He listened carefully, but heard nothing.

Ivan paused at the top of the hill before starting down. He didn’t see anything threatening. As he started climbing the next hill, he realized this hill was much steeper than the last. For a few minutes he debated on whether or not to move farther down to where the slope was less pronounced. After a few seconds of indecision, he chose to try the incline.

At first he had little difficulty, but presently he began to have problems maintaining his footing. Rather than risking a fall, Ivan decided to walk farther down the hill before cresting it. He angled down the hill and began to cautiously work his way around an area of fallen rocks.

The incline leveled out. He had walked only a few meters when he noticed the large, splay-toed footprint of the ultra armor leading through the scree. Ivan froze as he followed the tracks with his eyes. The trail was clear in the snow. It led to a fairly dense stand of trees. There, through the path it had crushed to get into the thicket, sat the ultra armor.

It was angled away from him and squatting like a cat about to pounce. The sensor suite mounted in the ‘head’ was moving in small arcs as it scanned the area. Ivan noticed Krahnk’s sword was no longer embedded in the armor of its head. The cat had probably gotten out to remove it. Idly he wished he could have been there when it had dismounted. A few rounds of 7.62 Nato from his rifle would have ended this issue quickly.

On it’s back, the bottom of the streamlined pods containing the twin pulse cannons were charred and blackened, as though a shot had impacted between the body and the weapons pods. He suspected that the blast had damaged the rotation ring of the weapons pods. The pods were moving slower than they had been, and every so often it stuck. Even so, the twin pulse cannons appeared functional. He didn’t want to verify that.

Ivan wasn’t sure who had gotten the hit. Aside from the Lieutenant, and Elendra-Emra, no one in the squad carried anything that could pierce its armor. Kwala, one of the other survivors, had made a comment that lead him to believe it might have been Volodray.

Slowly, he moved up and hid behind the tree that was in front of him. He suspected that the ultra armor had detected him, but having a few trees in front to provide soft cover was always a good idea.

He waited for a few moments with no response from the ultra armor. Ivan blinked the sweat from his eyes. It seemed like a steady trickle was running down his forehead. He resisted the urge to attempt to sneak away, knowing any further movement would only increase the chance that it would see him.

After waiting for a while, Ivan glanced at the chronometer built into his helmet. Twenty minutes had passed. He couldn’t keep this waiting up for much longer. His back and legs were starting to burn.

Ten minutes later, the ultra armor shifted to its right. It charged out of the stand of trees, snapping them effortlessly as it fired on the march. The twin streams of plasma raked the side of the hill, but the tree Ivan was using for cover obscured the target. He didn’t want to peer around and risk being spotted by its motion sensors. As the ultra armor crested the hill, Ivan took advantage of his chance to escape and moved back in the direction he had come.

Ivan continued moving for about twenty minutes before he decided he was away from immediate danger. He couldn’t hear anything, which he found both nerve-wracking and reassuring. It was the realization that he had stumbled onto the ultra armor without seeing it that bothered him. He had completely missed it in the trees.

On the positive side, the ultra armor had not reacted to his presence which meant the pilot was either toying with him or had missed him completely. He could believe the former. Kwala had commented that the ultra armor’s design and behavior indicated a Cizerack pilot. Ivan hoped for the latter. If that were the case, then he might be able to strike a blow before it killed him.

As he marched, he realized suddenly that the idea that he was going to die didn’t bother him as much as it had. That realization startled him. What was beginning to annoy him was the idea that he might not be able to strike a blow. He was not used to thinking of himself as helpless. His grandfather had instilled in him a great deal of pride in the Golobitski martial tradition. His kindjal was a physical reminder of this tradition. It was a Cossack weapon, and since the Golobitski were not Cossack, the only way for the original Golobiskis to get one was to take it as a trophy from its Cossack owner.

On a whim, he pulled the weapon. It was a simple but effective blade. It was about half a meter long, with a wide, double-edged blade. He kept the outside edge nearly razored. The inside he used for coarse cutting, so he kept that machete sharp. Its fuller, a pair of narrow metal strips on both sides of the blade running from the grips to the sharp point strengthened and reinforced the blade. The grips were made of Maladarn Oak. Designed strictly for offense, it had no hand protection at all. It was a highly utilitarian weapon, and while it was useful for a variety of tasks, it was designed as a weapon.

Before he had shipped out for basic training, his grandfather had likened the weapon to the family. Golobitskis had fought against Napoleon. They had been among the defenders at Stalingrad. The Golobitskis were as unyielding and relentless as the Russian winter. Their history was a source of great pride for the entire family. Ivan had been trained to always look for the options. Golobitskis didn't give up. The very thought of giving up was offensive to him. Filled with a new determination, Ivan quickened his step.

The ground became rockier as he swung north, and the trees became less dense. It was reassuring to know that he would be better able to see the ultra armor if it came upon him, but it didn’t make him feel that much better. If he could see it, it could probably see him and its weapons could hit anything it could see.

As he moved, he began trying to think of ways to damage or take out that ultra armor. Eluding it was the best choice, but he also tried to think of ways to kill it. His grandfather had always said action cures panic. Planning to take action made him feel a bit better.

Kwala had implied that Volodray had done something to damage the ultra armor’s pulse cannon pods. They were still functioning, but not as efficiently. The armor was charred, so that would imply extreme heat. Since Volodray’s laser rifle would not have done that kind of damage, he might have used a grenade.

Ivan double-checked his grenades. He had a single white-phosphorus grenade. A willie-pete might generate that kind of heat.

The challenge was determining where it would do the most damage and how to get it there. The question was how much it would really do to the ultra armor. He didn’t have Kwala’s accuracy with thrown weapons, but Volodray didn’t either. If Volodray had thrown the grenade, then Ivan was impressed. The man had not shown such accuracy during squad drills.

Another issue was getting the grenade to detonate at the right time. All of his grenades relied on timers. That was fine for stationary targets, but for mobile targets like the ultra armor, they weren’t very effective. Impact-detonated grenades, like those from Kwala’s grenade launcher, would have been nice. Next time, he vowed, he was going to get and qualify with a grenade launcher.

As far as the damage went, while the grenade had damaged the rotation ring, it hadn’t done enough to knock out the rotation of the weapons pods. The chance of Ivan throwing a grenade with enough accuracy to hit something vital was slim. The other option was to find a way to attach the grenade directly to the ring. Even if the armor was not penetrated, the concussion could still warp or bend the superstructure of the…

His retina burned with the crimson afterimage of plasma as it incinerated a swath in the trees to his right. Ivan dove for the ground.

Trees crashed faintly in the distance. Ivan waited for the shots that would end his life.

Glancing through the spindly trunks of the trees, he could see nothing. Ivan blinked as sweat dripped into his eyes.

For several moments there was silence. Then, he heard the splintering of saplings as the heavy armor crashed through the trees on the ridge behind him. As it rushed toward him, Ivan fought to keep his eyes open. He couldn’t react if he shut his eyes. The sweat burned. He prayed that the ultra armor wouldn’t come close enough to step on him.

As the ultra armor closed with him, Ivan felt the ground vibrating beneath him. It took every ounce of self-discipline not to bolt. The ultra armor became huge as it got closer. The sudden fear that he would be trampled assailed him. Torn between the fear of being trampled and the fear of attracting the armor’s attention, Ivan froze. He could only watch wide-eyed as it passed by a few meters to his left. Clods of dirt and snow kicked up by the passing ultra armor landed on him.

This time he was able to observe it a bit more closely. He didn’t get a good look, but it appeared that Krahnk’s sword had cut deeply into the sensor suite. He hoped it had done major damage. Ivan would have liked to know what kind of sword Krahnk had been using. Kwala had called it a ‘Kutash’ or something like that.

The ultra armor continued on, and Ivan turned to watch it. It moved up the hill and turned at the crest. It stood there for a minute, waiting. It’s head moved side to side. Ivan could almost sense it’s ‘eyes’ searching for him.

Seconds ticked by on his helmet chronometer. Trees crashed to his right. From the sounds of their passage, what he guessed were a few of the local whildobeests had panicked and were fleeing. Their passage attracted the ultra armor’s attention also. Several plasma streams destroyed the small herd. Ivan could hear one bleating in pain and terror before a final blast finished it.

Ivan waited. He feared if he moved, that the ultra armor would deal with him as it had dealt with the whildobeests.

The seconds ticked by. Ivan cursed the shortsightedness that made him forget his sweatband. The salt from his perspiration kept burning his eyes.

The ultra armor began shooting. Ivan cowered. As the plasma streams licked out all around him and then moved to his left, he realized it wasn’t firing at him. It was trying to flush him as it had flushed the whildobeests. If it had been tracking him, he would be as dead as the charred whildobeests to his right.

Ivan inhaled sharply with the excitement of his realization. The ultra armor’s pilot couldn’t see him. Whether it was due to his armor and infiltrator jumpsuit, or perhaps the damage done to its sensor suite, or perhaps even some issue he was not aware of, the pilot couldn’t see him. He suddenly realized he was smiling.

His epee coach had always said if you looked past your fear and focused on your opponent’s action, you could always find their weakness. During his platoon’s hand-to-hand training, their close-support specialist, Elandra-emra, had not taken him seriously and had made the same attack twice. For any of Richard’s epee students, the second time was fatal. Timing attacks were Richard’s specialty. It has been relatively simple for Ivan to time his thrust for the instant that Elandra-emra’s blade was out of line and thus not a threat.

Though Ivan couldn’t think of how a stop-thrust might translate into this situation, knowing the ultra armor’s pilot could pass so close and still not see him raised his confidence considerably. He might be able to evade her after all.

She sat on the hill for about a half an hour before moving off. Ivan watched as she rushed off to the west. He suspected that she was trying to cut him off before he could make it to the pass leading to the Disciples’ base camp. That would certainly fit if she had a momentary contact with him, but not enough to fire accurately. The fact that he was still alive suggested that. Now that she had a general idea of his location, it was going to be difficult but not impossible to get past her.

Ivan set off again. This time, the fear that had impelled him forward had been replaced by a wary confidence. Sun Tzu’s old maxim of ‘Know your enemy and know yourself and you will always triumph’ gave him hope. He had an idea of his enemy’s weakness, and a good idea of his own strength. It wasn’t a foregone conclusion, but he had hope. As long as he didn’t get cocky as Elandra-emra had…

He climbed the hill cautiously. Her trail was fairly obvious. He could see the swath of trees knocked down in its path down the slope and up the next.

The slope became steeper halfway down. Ivan had to move laterally to find a less steep path. This took him out of sight of the ultra armor’s trail. For a minute, he debated the wisdom of trying to find it again. Not knowing where the ultra armor was disturbed him, but he also realized that the probability was that the pilot was watching her rear. The last thing he wanted to do was to stumble into an ambush. The team was counting on him to make it back to base camp to warn the unit. He didn’t believe the base itself was in any danger – it was well fortified. The Disciples of Horatius followed the same rock-hard discipline that the legionnaire they were named for had probably followed. Still, to leave an unfriendly ultra armor on the prowl was never a good idea.

After an hour, he came to a ridge that abutted a tall rock outcrop. Ivan glanced up, praying that she didn’t have some sort of a jump or flight system. The plateau would make an ideal spotter position or possibly even a firebase. It would be open to air attack, but with air superiority, it would be highly effective if obvious. It would be something to keep in mind for future operations in this area.

When Ivan got to the top of the next hill, he looked down at a cliff. The ridge he was on rose sharply before sloping gently downward and dropping off to what he guestimated was a 25-meter cliff. The outcrop rose on the far side of the clearing. Sparse shrubs and short grasses grew in the roughly triangular down slope. On the far side of the clearing he could see a narrow trail leading along the edge of the rock face. That was where he needed to go to get back to the base camp.

He started to move around a thicket of shrubs and froze. Ivan could feel the hair on the back of his neck bristling. Something wasn’t right about that clearing.

Ivan smiled grimly. He could hear his grandfather telling him to listen to his instincts, and his brother Sergei laughing that he was too inexperienced to have instincts.

At a glance, the edge of woods appeared to be untouched. None of the trees or shrubs were crushed. There were no indications that she had passed through. He could hear the sound of critters scurrying around. Nothing seemed amiss. But still, he sensed that something wasn’t right.

Carefully he scanned the clearing. For an instant, he thought he saw movement, but it was fleeting. Looking more closely at the area, he noticed what he had first thought was a discoloration in the rock actually appeared to be a number of meters away from the rocks. He glanced to the left of the area. In his peripheral vision, he could just barely make out the ultra armor waited patiently in the middle of the clearing. Ivan froze.

After a minute or two, he realized she hadn’t reacted to his presence. He had approached from her left side without anything more than the normal stealth, and she did not seem to know that he was there. Ivan slowly released the breath he had been holding.

He had almost missed her. She had not used her camouflage unit before. Only the armor damage on her weapons pods gave her away.

Ivan was thankful for the spotty bushes and shrubs between them. He suspected that the crest of the ridge and the bushes had masked his approach to her position. Despite the earlier evidence that she couldn’t detect him, everything he could use helped.

It was somewhat unsettling to be so close to her. Knowing she could blast him into oblivion with almost no effort was intimidating, but it also gave him a perverse sort of thrill. There was something exhilarating to know that he was so close and yet she couldn’t see him. Ivan reminded himself not to get cocky. He had a mission to complete

Knowing what he was looking for made it easier to see her. Her camouflage unit distorted the rocks behind her just slightly. She was squatted down on her haunches like a cat about to pounce. Her head was slowly pivoting from left to right and back as she scanned the area. Ivan noticed a long gray whip antenna that he had not seen before. It extended a number of feet above the camouflaged ultra armor. He suspected that it was a heads-up system designed to allow her to scan an area without being seen. He could just make out the paired pulse cannons on her back mount swiveling in sync with her head.

Ivan studied the damaged area on her weapons pod closely. He guessed the target had been the rotation ring. He didn’t think a grenade would have damaged the weapons pods enough to knock them out.

The fact that the damage had broken the coverage of the camouflage system suggested that the camou system used more of a chameleon effect based on the surface of the armor itself. Sergei had told him about some of the new experimental envelopment-field camouflage generators. Ivan was thankful her ultra armor didn’t have such a system. He would not have noticed it otherwise.

He debated on whether to try to move back over the crest or whether to stay put, but the idea of moving while under her watchful eyes didn’t appeal to him. He decided to stay put.

As he observed the clearing, one thing that bothered him was her lack of a trail. He had been counting on spotting her path by the crushed trees and foliage. The fact that she was on the cliff without any visible trail concerned him. He didn’t believe it was possible for her ultra armor to make it over the crest without leaving a trace. It unsettled him to think that her ultra armor might have limited flight or jump capabilities. Evading a flight-capable ultra armor would be that much more difficult. It was still possible he reminded himself. Ivan decided to sit and wait and try to think of ways to get around it.

Ivan was still waiting for her to move over an hour later. Aside from its sensors and the weapons pod, the UA had not twitched. Ivan was beginning to get antsy. He had been lying there nearly motionless and the stress was wearing on him. Any mistake could alert her to his presence. He felt confident that he was well hidden, but he preferred not to push his luck.

One benefit of his inactivity was the confirmation that she did have either a jump or limited flight capability. He had noticed her trail in the snow leading to the base of the cliff just below where she now waited for him.

The time had also led to a new series of options, including one wild scheme that he thought might allow him to damage or even capture the UA.

Sergei had once explained the idea of tamping an explosive charge to maximize its blast. If he could find a way to place his white phosphorus grenade between the two weapons pods, it would do much more damage than even Volodray’s grenade had. A frag grenade or two would only help things. That would certainly help cut down its firepower. He wasn’t so naïve as to believe it would stop the UA, but it was a positive step toward doing something.

The option that offered the greatest chance of success for eliminating her was to get her outside of the UA. Even a python would have a difficult time surviving a close range burst of 7.62, and despite their claims to the contrary, Cizeracks were usually not as hardy as either of the Python races. The big question was how to get her out.

Ivan had already rejected the idea of toppling the UA off the cliff as unlikely. He didn’t have any explosives or any way to move it. A rockslide would work, but once again he would need explosives he didn’t have. Also, that would require him to climb the face of the cliff. He didn’t like the idea of exposing himself to her fire.

The UA rose smoothly and moved swiftly forward. The instant the weapons pods cleared the top of the ridge, they canted down and opened fire down the slope. Twin streams of crimson plasma painted long afterimages in Ivan’s retina as it blasted something down the other side of the hill. Trees crashed and shrubs fell in a swath as the stream of plasma cut through them. The UA paused momentarily, and fired again.

It backed away from the crest, crouched like a cat, and sprang. Shrubs and saplings bowed and sprang back as the pressure wave from the jump unit pushed the UA into the air. Ivan felt the pressure wave pressing him backward and down and he lowered his head to ride it out. When he looked up, there was no indication that the UA had ever been there. He suspected that the large footpads had left a footprint, but he would have to break cover to check that out.

Crawling to the top of the hill, he peered down, trying to see where the UA had gone.

The UA could not be seen through the trees. A sudden chill shot like a bead of sweat down Ivan’s spine. For the nth time that day, he cursed the fact that he had forgotten his sweatband. Either she was toying with him again, or she really believed she had shot him and bounded off. The question was what would she do when she discovered that her target wasn’t him. That meant she would either come back, or she would watch the area of this pass. The other possibility was that she might think he had taken another way and be gone altogether. If that were the case, then he would probably have plenty of time to get back to the base camp. Of course if she were watching, with the effectiveness of her camouflage unit, he would never see her before she fired. He would have to make a decision and soon.

He had just decided to try the pass when he heard something overhead. Glancing up, he quickly dropped to the ground. She had returned.

Ivan was thankful for his hesitation. He would have either been caught in the middle of the small clearing or just on the side of the small path if he had been more decisive. The downside of this was he still had to figure out how to get past her to the base camp.

After a few minutes of debating, he decided to back down and try a different way back to the base.

Carefully he began to back down the hill. When the ground leveled out and he had gotten a few hundred meters of foliage between himself and her UA, he stood and began walking.

Ivan walked southeast for a bit to try to get more distance between himself and her UA before angling southwest. He wanted at least one hill between himself and her.

He had been walking for about forty-five minutes when he noticed what appeared to be three bodies lying on the ground. Immediately he took cover behind a tree. After observing for a few minutes, he couldn’t find any threats and decided the aggressors were probably gone. The trees and bushes around the corpses were smashed. It looked like there had been a firefight. After debating for a few minutes, he decided to investigate. He hoped to get some information from the carnage.

Cautiously he moved up. As he closed to the nearest body, he recognized the field-muted Disciples of Horatius emblem on the armor. It was Volodray. He had circled back around to where he had panicked and left Randy Andy to face her ultra armor without him.

Ivan forced himself to view the scene. It was difficult for him to view the bodies of his dead squad mates. His stomach was threatening to bring up the meal bar he had eaten earlier. Even if he had not panicked, it was doubtful that he could have changed the outcome. What ate at him was the knowledge that instead of doing anything to support them, he bolted.

The camouflage unit on Volodray’s black armor was off of course. His legs and lower torso were crushed in the middle of the ultra armor’s footprint. It was a well-aimed attack.

One thing Ivan noticed after a minute was that the trigger finger of Volodray’s right hand was missing. Whatever had been used to cut through his armored glove had cauterized the wound. There was no blood. The area around his legs and abdomen was stained a dark red. It caught Ivan’s attention because the bloody area around Volodray’s legs looked darker than human blood. That would be something to investigate if he…when, he corrected himself. He would investigate that when he got back to base camp.

Struck by a grim insight, Ivan began looking at the tracks around Volodray’s body. He recognized Kwala’s boot prints, and what he believed were Randy Andy’s, but he also recognized a set of feline prints. They led to and from a second set of ultra armor tracks that came from the East. The tracks looked similar, so there were either a pair of the ultra armor in the vicinity, or the original came back for her trophy. It wasn’t a pleasant thought either way, but it was good to know what he was up against.

His old fencing instructor had always said anything you can observe about your opponent off the fencing strip could aid you. You just had to recognize the thought process the action suggested.

The idea that the Cizerack ultra armor pilot was a trophy hunter was confirmed when he followed the ultra armor tracks to the upper half of Krahnk’s body. The trigger finger of Krahnk’s right hand was gone also. It was an unsettling tidbit of information, but it was something that might prove useful under the right circumstances.

Ivan moved on. He walked quickly past the tree where he had hidden. When he came to the point where Randy Andy, Kwala, and he had parted ways, he debated on which way to go. He could follow Kwala’s route, knowing that he had run into something unfriendly. He could follow Randy Andy’s trail not knowing anything of his friend’s fate. He could follow his own again in the hope the ultra armor was not in the clearing any longer.

After a few minutes, he decided to follow Randy Andy’s trail. He found it reassuring that he had not heard Randy Andy’s M-60. Ivan hoped that might mean the route Randy Andy had followed was relatively clear. Randy Andy might even be waiting for him when he got back to camp. The tall Orion was resourceful. Ivan was sure he had made it. The thought that the success of the mission might rest solely on him alone scared Ivan. He was no longer the cocky tyro he had been starting out. He had seen the elephant, to use one of his grandfather’s phrases, but he had run. Now he could no longer run.

Ivan moved cautiously along the trail. He didn’t want to walk into an ambush.

Ivan Golobitski heard snarling voices speaking a language he didn’t understand. Ducking down further behind the tree stump he had been resting against, he low-crawled behind the fallen tree trunk. It would provide better cover than the stump.

With his infiltrator thermal jumpsuit and ceramic armor, Ivan knew he was hard to detect with inorganic means. This still left the Mark I eyeball.

He ducked down and peered through the gap between the stump and the fallen trunk beside him. A pair of rough-looking Cizeracks were talking as they walked in his direction. The big felines were both equipped in gray and white armor that looked battered but substantial. The larger of the two had a Body Mount Harness that swiveled in sync with her helmet as she moved her head. Ivan didn’t know what a system like that cost, but he was certain it was expensive. It appeared that they were equipped with laser systems that would seriously out-range his FN/Fal. That reinforced his decision to use stealth over confrontation. He always preferred to fight on his own terms.

They both had their visors up and were speaking in the curious assortment of growls, snarls, grunts, and hisses that comprised the Cizerack language. He noticed a large scar running through the muzzle of the smaller cat.

Ivan inhaled sharply as a shouted, ‘Hey there,’ came from behind him. From the slight Scottish Burr, he guessed it was an Orion. He ducked down and pressed himself against the fallen tree trunk. Ivan was certain he had been seen, but the Orion walking toward the Cizeracks never glanced in his direction. Ivan carefully readied his rifle, but kept his finger off the trigger. He didn’t want to shoot if he could avoid it. Three to one odds were terrible, especially when the enemy had better armor and weapons.

The Orion’s gray and white Kodiak armor was heavily scarred. He carried a long-barreled rifle with the kind of ease only years of use will bring. From lack of a bore on the weapon, Ivan suspected it was a laser of some sort.

The Cizeracks growled. The larger of the two snarled.

‘Quiet fool. The human may be weak, but he’s not stupid enough to miss your racket.’

The Orion laughed merrily, ‘Zxathena, you’re just angry because he managed to elude your precious ultra armor prototype. If Stashees was half the jockey she claimed to be, she would have found him hours ago.’

The smaller Cizerack hissed, ‘Watch your tongue, McTravers. You may find yourself to be our next quarry.’

‘That could be a lot of fun,’ McTravers replied cheerfully, ‘I’ve never hunted two Flea-lines at once before. If either of you were half the tracker you claimed to be, you’d be more aware of your surroundings. You didn’t react until I yelled. With that kind of alertness, that single solitary human could be sighting in on you and you’d never know it. He could be there in that ravine, over there in that tree, behind that fallen tree trunk over there,’ Ivan inhaled sharply, his pulse pounding as he waited for a laser hit, ‘or behind that bush.’ He paused for an instant before adding with mocking concern, ‘I’d be vewy cawefull so de big, bad human doesn’t twim your tails.’

The larger of the two growled deep within her throat.

‘Don’t provoke me Rogue. I tracked and killed the Orion. Another Orion’s blood will taste the sweeter.’

McTravers laughed again, ‘I would probably give you indigestion. Besides that, I’ve always believed that part of the joy of eating is in the smell. I showered recently, so I probably wouldn’t be decayed enough for you to enjoy the feast…Of course since I probably don’t smell like any of the indigenous wildlife, tracking me would be easy. Lucky for me I’m downwind.’

Ivan cursed himself for a fool. He didn’t think to check the wind. Cizeracks could track by smell. He hoped they couldn’t smell him. Then he realized the Orion stood between him and the Cizeracks. He was downwind also.

The smaller Cizerack snarled. ‘You tread dangerously Rogue. You know I am scent blind. I should sheathe my claws in your corpse for that.’

McTravers replied mockingly, ‘Oh, that’s right. I hear that’s going around. Didn’t that big monkee bury a sword in the sensor suite of your precious ultra armor? From what I hear, now Stashees’ sensors are only good for visual scanning and metal detection, and metal isn’t very effective.’

The larger Cizerack snarled, ‘Leave if you value your worthless hide, Rogue. I should disembowel you right here.’

McTravers’ reply was cold. ‘And you would be dead in the middle of your pounce, Zxathena.’ He laughed. ‘You both need to lighten up. Life is too short to be so serious. You should learn to be happy.’

The Cizeracks growled. The larger Cizerack retorted, ‘Your life will be short if you keep baiting us, Rogue. You walk through here by our sufferance only. Tread carefully.’

Ivan heard nothing for a few minutes, and then he heard McTravers laugh. When he spoke, any hint of the burr was gone.

‘Now there go two kitties with their tails wound too tight. It’s too bad they’re looking in the wrong direction.’

Ivan heard nothing for a few minutes. Then McTravers commented. ‘I guess I should get moving. That little scoundrel is either Lady Luck’s own son, or he’s better than I suspect. Either way, I have the funny feeling Lady Luck’s going to smile on him.’

Something thumped on the ground a few feet in front of where he lay backed against the tree trunk. Ivan inhaled sharply as he recognized the cylindrical shape of a plas grenade. He couldn’t move. Sweat trickled down into his eyes as he waited for the blast.

A second plas grenade landed next to the first.

Through his panic, Ivan heard McTravers laugh. ‘Ooops. I forgot to arm them. I guess my quarry got lucky again. Oh well, hopefully his luck won’t run out. He’s done rather well so far. He’s got Stashees losing her fur in frustration over her inability to find him. If I see him, I’ll have to thank him for the entertainment he’s provided.’ He paused for an instant before adding more coldly, ‘Of course the next time I see him, it’ll be through my sights. Lady Luck is a fickle mistress.’

Ivan gingerly sat up a bit. The timer on the grenades was not active. The spoon was still secure. The Orion had just given him two plas grenades. Even after working with Andy for months, he didn’t understand Orions.

He cautiously glanced over the tree trunk, but McTravers was not in sight. Ivan secured the two grenades and scanned the area carefully again before moving out. He didn’t want to run into the Orion if he could help it. He was just hoping he would not decide to ambush him and take his grenades back.

Randy Andy was…he didn’t have time to think about it now. Kwala had been something of a friend, but he hadn’t known him well. Randy Andy was very different from his brother Sergei, but they had both watched out for him. Knowing that he would probably never see him again brought tears to his eyes, but he could only blink them away. He didn’t have time to think about that. He had a mission to finish.

The snow was a major concern. Because he had made contact with the enemy and knew they knew he was there, Ivan backtracked along the way he had come. It wasn’t a good solution, but he didn’t have anything that would allow him to take out McTravers quietly. He didn’t think the Orion would tell the Cizeracks that he had been there. Somehow he suspected McTravers would rather enjoy hunting him, especially since the plas grenades he had tossed Ivan were more than capable of blowing him out of his armor. The knowledge that his quarry had a lethal weapon would just made the hunt more interesting for a thrill-seeking Orion.

Ivan moved quickly back to a rocky area he had crossed and began to use the rocks to mask his steps. Occasionally he would purposefully step in the snow. He quickly moved through, knowing there was no way to mask where his feet had broken through the thin crust of the snow. When he reached the edge of the rocky area, he backtracked, carefully placing his feet in the tracks he had just left. Any decent tracker would be able to tell what he had done, but he hoped to give himself a few extra minutes of confusion.

When he got back to the rockier area, he began to jump from rock to rock. Ivan was certain he looked like a proper fool, but he hoped to throw off the Orion or anyone else following him for a few minutes. There were several large trees around, and if he had a grappling gun, he realized he could have fired a line at a tree and swung a bit to break up his trail. He didn’t know how well it would actually work in practice, but it was something to consider for his next mission.

He was near the biggest boulder on the field when in the distance; he heard the crack of saplings being splintering by something large passing through. His pulse pounding, he dropped behind the boulder. Trying to conceal himself as much as possible behind the skimmer-sized rock, he waited for a gauss round or laser hit to indicate that he had been seen.

The noise stopped and Ivan tried to hold his breath. As he waited, he realized that the animal noises that had found to be so comforting earlier were gone. Whatever it was, and he believed he knew, had scared the local fauna. A rivulet of sweat trickled its way down into his eyes and he blinked it away with irritation. Minutes passed. Ivan tried to breath slowly and deeply, preparing for any dashes or swift movement he might have to make.

The crashing of the trees began again and got closer. Cautiously, gingerly, Ivan moved to where he could peer around the base of the rock.

An ultra armor squatted about thirty meters away. It was similar to the one that had killed the rest of his squad. Its sensor head swiveled as it sought targets. The weapons pods were more streamlined than the pods on the other ultra armor. Ivan guessed they were laser mounts.

He had been playing cat-and-mouse with the other ultra armor for most of the afternoon. One of his squad-mates had damaged its sensors before it had killed him. Ivan suspected that had saved his life. He had been within ten meters of that ultra armor three times in the past four hours and the pilot had not seen him.

The ultra armor squatted there for a moment before moving swiftly toward the west. Ivan watched it go. The second ultra armor made the situation more difficult. He needed to get back to base camp with this information.

After a few minutes, he decided it was probably safe to move. With the second ultra armor moving in the direction he was going, he decided it would be better to head back the way he had come. Better to face the ultra armor with no sensors than the ultra armor unscathed.