we wait, we'll be too damn old.'
'Oh.'
'That's it? That's all you can say? Oh?' Anna punched his arm hard.
'Ow! Sorry. Yes, yes, okay,' Michael said; he crushed his face into her neck. 'Let's get married, but when?' he mumbled.
'Tomorrow.'
Michael pushed her away. 'Tomorrow? Shit, Anna! When you change your mind, you change your mind.'
'Time's not on our side, Michael,' she said, all of a sudden grim-faced, 'so let's not waste the time we have.'
'Deal,' Michael said, and folded her into his arms.
Anna and Michael stayed that way for a long time, a tiny island of sanity and hope set in an ocean of barbaric madness. Sunday, October 14, 2401, UD Sector Juliet, Branxton Base, Commitment
'Well, Mr. Michael Helfort.'
'Yes, Mrs. Anna Cheung Helfort?'
'I think I have to go. Lieutenant Kallewi's looking grumpy.'
Michael's stomach had solidified into a sullen ball of lead. 'Go, and for chrissakes, be careful,' he said. 'I want you back in one piece.'
'Screw you, Michael Helfort,' Anna said. She settled her helmet on her head with a firm tap and picked up her pack and rifle. 'Who the hell are you to talk?'
'Anna!'
'I'll be careful, promise. Love you.'
With a fleeting peck on the cheek, Anna turned and fell in, her slight figure incongruous amid the bulky shapes of Kallewi's marines. Michael commed Kallewi. 'Look after her, Janos.'
'I'll do my best.'
Sergeant Tchiang's voice cut through the desultory chatter, and the marines were off, their ranks swollen with Fed spacers. In seconds, they were gone, swallowed by the darkness, and soon the soft tramp of booted feet faded away. Michael stood and stared down the tunnel for a long time. At last, with a heartfelt sigh, he turned and started to make his way back to ENCOMM. He could worry all he liked, and it made no difference. All he could do was hope that Anna was smart enough not to take too many stupid chances, that she would keep her head down, that she never volunteered for anything.
'Fat chance,' he said under his breath, and climbed into the sled. Bloody woman was born to volunteer.
ENCOMM was quiet when he walked in; he scanned the boards to see what was happening in the real world. Nothing important, he decided after a moment's study. Right across the countryside around McNair, DocSec sweeps were in progress. Michael shook his head. Sweeps were the most counterproductive operations the Hammers undertook, and not a day passed without dozens combing their way through towns and villages all across Commitment. As far as Michael could work out, the sweeps created an illusion of effective counterinsurgency activity. In truth, they achieved little and pissed the locals off a lot. Thanks to DocSec's appalling operational security, anyone DocSec wanted to lay their hands on was usually long gone.
Not that the NRA was sitting back. Six operations were under way: four supply convoy ambushes, the assassination of a DocSec officer stupid enough to think he would be safe visiting his mother in a remote village, and a human-wave attack-Michael, like all the Feds, hated them, but they worked-on a planetary defense force support base close to the town of Perdan. He wished the faceless NRA troopers luck and made his way through the clutter of workstations to where Major Hok was sitting.
'Major Hok.'
'Ah,' Hok said, pushing her seat back to look at Michael, a sly grin on her face. 'The romantic one returns. How's the lovely Mrs. Helfort?'
Michael grimaced. 'On her way with the rest of our marines to join the 120th.'
'So soon?' Hok shook her head. 'Kraa! I must pay attention. Anyway, don't worry. The 120th is in good hands. Colonel Haadith is a good man.'
'I hope so, Major.'
'Trust me, he is. Now, Operation Pendulum.'
'The simulation's all set. We'll be ready.'
It was Hok's turn to grimace. 'Have to tell you that I still have trouble with those Kraa-damned AIs you Feds seem to like so much. It's been what? Over a century since they were proscribed? That's one hell of a lot of brainwashing.'
'It is,' Michael said, 'but they're just fancy computers. Anyway, wait until they start to save the lives of your troopers.'
'That's why the Resistance Council okayed them, so they'd better do just that. Now, there are a couple of things we need to finalize before we run the sim. First…'
General Vaas walked to the front of the makeshift conference room. He turned and scanned the faces of the commanders responsible for the success-or failure-of Operation Pendulum. Michael sucked his breath in. He did not have to be Einstein to work out that Vaas was both angry and embarrassed.
'Thanks to our Fed friends,' Vaas said, 'we know that the NRA is not capable of running anything as complicated as a brigade-strength operation against a fixed objective defended by our old pals in planetary defense. And that'-he paused for effect-'is exactly what Pendulum is. Problem is, folks, if we can't make an operation like Pendulum work, we should just pack up and hand ourselves over to DocSec… which'-his voice hardened to a razor- edged snarl-'I will not allow. So, we will run this damn sim until we learn how to run complex operations. If we are ever to bring the Hammer government down, everything we do has to count, every trooper's life has to count. We have to make this work. Is that understood?'
A rumble of agreement filled the room, the undercurrents of controlled ferocity, a fierce determination to make a difference, a burning desire to put a stop to centuries of xenophobia-fueled repression, all so strong that Michael could feel them ebb and flow until Vaas's hand went up to restore quiet.
'Good,' he said. 'Let's do it. I want commanders' after-action reports in time for a detailed wash-up at 18:00. We'll change the ops plan if we have to, but I want the next sim ready to go by midnight. That's it.'
Resigned to another night's work, Michael stifled a groan and climbed to his feet. Did Vaas ever sleep?
'End of exercise,' the AI's disembodied voice said.
Thank goodness for that, Michael said to himself. Two high-intensity, adrenaline-fueled sims in less than twenty-four hours, never mind the intellectual demands of the planning process, and even a man like Vaas must feel tired. The second sim had been a big improvement over the first; surely the man would call it a day.
Vaas bounded to the front of the room, shifting from foot to foot as he waited for the room to fill. 'Oh, no,' Michael whispered when he sensed the energy and confidence radiating from the man. Something told him it would be hours before anyone managed any sleep.
'The good news is that was better,' Vaas said. 'The bad news is that it wasn't good enough. So I want commanders' after-action reports…'
Vaas had run his people into the ground; Michael-and everyone else-was beyond exhausted, his craving for sleep close to irresistible. Vaas had been relentless, but Michael had to concede the man had a point. Time was not on Vaas's side; the NRA must defeat the Hammers before the people of the Hammer Worlds lost faith in the Nationalists. The good news was that each iteration of the sim had been better than the one before it. NRA commanders used to small, single-unit operations were coming to grips with the need to coordinate what they were doing with the other units involved.
Maybe Pendulum would not be the disaster he had feared. With a quick prayer that Anna was safe-by now she and Kallewi's marines should be well on the way to the 120th Regiment's base in the northwestern Branxtons-he slid into an exhausted sleep, and the darkness overwhelmed him. Monday, October 15, 2401, UD Branxton Ranges, Commitment
With billions of synapses telling him he was about to die, Michael could not help himself, flinching back into his seat in an autonomic reaction to the wall of rock bearing down on them at frightening speed.
'Breaking left.' Mother's voice was admirably calm as she threw Widowmaker bodily onto its port side. Michael's heart shot into his mouth as the ground rushed up to meet them. Only seconds from disaster, the AI smashed the lander back level. Running fast meters above the forest canopy, twin plumes of raw energy blasting the valley
