“An hour we’d be pacing them and raining fire on them,” Zvi said patiently. “But we’ve got the high ground, and there’s only this ford across the Speke within forty kilometers.” “That’s only an hour,” Parson cut in. “They’re tough-Hauptmann Beaker learned that the hard way.” Not as hard as Sagetsky would have, the drunken bastard. “Listen up,” he said, using a general freak so the Deia boys and girls could hear him too. Not that they’d granted the Zouaves any time, either. They hadn’t taken the time to refit since their last skirmish near Shasta. Zvi studied them, magnifying each ’Mech and then backing his scale off until he saw the whole force. The range quickly fell to less than two kilometers, close enough for the Enforcer’s optics to start painting accurate imagery across his heads-up display. Reinforcements were coming-Clanners or some nonsense. Kommandant Zimmer had given a good speech when they’d come in-system. He knew they’d smashed the garrisons on Kooken’s Pleasure Pit and Pasig.
Zvi patted his command couch’s arm gently. Better than the hand-me-downs the Zouaves got from the Kell Hounds. Whoever these raiders, these Corsairs, really were, they were well- equipped. The Enforcer’s computer pinged at him as it began to identify individual ’Mech models. The squat Manticore wagged its turret at him. “You guys ready?” “Hot and locked,” Carerra said. Sergeant Adam Carerra was the senior man left. “Adam, they’re coming again.” He looked to his left, where the tanks and two ’Mechs of the Deia Militia were dug in. Zvi backed a few steps away from the edge and dialed a different frequency. Acknowledgments flickered on his screen as they squawked their transponders. A cloud of dust was climbing into the sky. Zvi directed his sensors along the path Parson indicated, out across the Speke. Too long since the Kommandant’s ’Mech went down without its leg. He was getting punchy… too long in the cockpit. Parson was right handed-the Dervish didn’t have a right arm. His oft-repaired Dervish pointed with its left-arm box launcher. He’d come to like the women, too… Erica… “There, Leftenant,” Sergeant Parson said. He’d come to like it since the Zouaves landed to support the militia in garrison. The water was dirty brown, moving toward pale purple as it cleared and revealed the stones beneath. Leftenant Zvi Aras watched the waters of the Speke River flow past, sixty meters below the cliff’s edge where his Enforcer stood. BURTON’S REDOUbT DEIA, FEDERATED COMMONWEALTH 19 JUNE 3055