Greenies

let's not go surrendering anyone just yet. I may be full of shit but maybe... maybe I'm not.'

'What about my troops?' Zoloft asked. 'They're heading for the Purple Line right now and my battalion commanders tell me I can expect a lot of desertions when they get there.'

'Tell them to bypass the Purple Line,' Jackson said. 'Tell them to bypass the Red Line as well. All ACR units are to head directly to the main line of defense and help shore them up.'

'You think there's a chance of neutralizing the WestHem artillery?'

'Maybe,' Jackson said. 'In the meantime, let them know that if their position is indefensible they'll be pulled off the line. Make sure the AT holders in particular are given that message. You can quote me on this: If we cannot suppress the WestHem artillery we will surrender our position. You will not be subjected to marine artillery fire again, no matter what. Hopefully that will stem the flow of the desertions to some degree. If what I'm thinking actually works we're going to need the AT crews.'

'Can you honestly make such a promise?' Zoloft asked.

'I don't lie to my troops,' Jackson said. 'Send that message off and get those orders out. I'll get back to you as soon as I have time to think this through.'

'Doing it now, Kevin,' Zoloft said, excited to see the excitement in his commander's eyes.

STILL ALIVE, the text message from Jeff read. HEADING FOR THE MAIN LINE. ORDERS JUST CHANGED. REINFORCE 2^ND INF. HICKS BOUGHT IT IN THE LAST ATTACK. YOU STILL OK?

She was still okay. Though two tanks from their platoon had been blown up by the WestHem tanks during the engagements at the gap and at the Blue Line, and though one other had been damaged enough to be left out in the wastelands for all eternity, and though their concrete barrier had been burned through in no less than six places and their hull had been nicked in two, she, Belinda, and Zen were still alive and well. She had killed more than two dozen WestHem tanks and a dozen APCs in the last three hours, killing more than two hundred marines, but she herself was still alive, breathing, and wondering how much longer her luck could possibly hold out. She was also thrilled to find out that Jeff was still alive as well. She had heard some disturbing accounts of the casualties taken in the two battles, had seen the sheer volume of artillery, tank, and APC fire the hill positions had gone through.

'Did I hear a beep from your computer, X?' asked Belinda, who was driving their tank at forty klicks an hour to the east, keeping it in formation with what remained of their company.

'Yes, B,' she said, utilizing the nickname she'd bestowed upon her enigmatic companion in response to always being called X. 'Your hearing is as good as it always was.'

'He's okay?' she asked, her voice without a trace of emotion, leaving Xenia to wonder is she was asking because she was disappointed that he was okay or glad.

'He's alive,' Xenia told her. 'Hicks isn't though. He got killed in the last engagement.'

'Oh...' she said. 'I'm sorry for him.'

Xenia seemed to sense something like sincerity in her tone. Seemed to. Valentine, on the other hand, was obviously upset by this news.

'Hicks bought it?' he asked. 'Jesus fucking Christ. Did he say how?'

'No,' she said. 'Just that it happened in the last attack.'

'So many fucking people dead,' Zen said. 'And are we doing any good out here? It's starting to look like it's all for nothing.'

'Don't say that, Zen,' Belinda said. 'It's not all for nothing. It can't be!'

'They just told us to abandon the Purple Line and the Red Line, Belinda,' he said. 'That means they know we don't have a chance in hell of holding it. Does that sound like we're doing any good to you? You saw how much fucking armor those marines had out there, didn't you?'

'I saw it,' she said.

'We held the gap for less than half an hour,' Zen said. 'We held the Blue Line for even less. I'm not sure we're going to hold the main line at all. I think maybe Zoloft and Jackson are about ready to throw in the towel.'

Belinda had an argument to counter this point of view. Zen had a counter-argument. Xenia listened to neither one. She tuned them out and called up her holographic keyboard so she could compose her reply.

WE'RE ALIVE TOO, she wrote. SORRY ABOUT HICKS. I LIKED HIM. WE'RE HEADING FOR THE MAIN LINE TOO. MAYBE WE'LL SEE EACH OTHER THERE?

She sent off the text and then leaned back in her seat, stretching her sore back. She had been sitting in this tank for the past fifteen hours now. She yawned and contemplated catching a little sleep. After all, as gunner she had nothing to do while in transit and it was a ninety-minute ride to the main line of defense. She didn't notice that the conversation between Belinda and Zen had come to a halt.

'Motherfucker,' Zen's voice said, stirring her out of the semi-doze she'd been slipping into.

'What?' she and Belinda asked in unison.

'New orders,' Zen told them. 'They just came across from General Zoloft himself.'

'What are they?' Xenia asked.

'We're to report to a staging area twelve kilometers north of the main line.'

'Just us?' Belinda asked.

'No,' he replied. 'Not just us.'

Chapter 23

Eden main line of defense

September 14, 2146

0445 hours

The 17^th, 9^th, and 14^th ACRs, the battered veterans of two Jutfield Gap battles, made their way into the rear areas, passing through the main line of defense and assembling in staging areas west of the city but east of the artillery positions. Eden defense doctrine dictated that these three regiments were to be resupplied and refueled and then utilized as tactical reserve units for the 2^nd Infantry Division where their rapid mobility capabilities would allow them to be rushed — either piecemeal or fully intact — to portions of the main line that required immediate reinforcement. It was plain from the moment they came limping in that doctrine was not exactly being followed in this instance.

The first thing noticed was that all of their tanks and the support vehicles that supplied and fueled them were not in the staging area.

'Where the fuck are the tanks?' Jeff asked Drogan as the dismounted wearily from their APC. He was looking around almost frantically, seeing nothing but other APCs, armored supply vehicles, and, strangely, dozens of the tracked agricultural trucks that the 2^nd Infantry soldiers had recently used to remove the WestHem dead from the battlefield between phases.

'I don't see them,' Drogan replied, taking only a cursory look around. 'Have you heard from Xenia? Maybe she can tell you.'

'I haven't heard from her in more than an hour. She sent me a text after the last withdrawal so I know she was all right then.'

'Nothing since?'

He shook his head. 'The tanks aren't even showing up on the forces screen anymore,' he said. 'It's like they were never there in the first place.'

'That is kinda strange,' Drogan said. 'I'm sure there's a good reason for it.'

'Yeah,' Jeff said worriedly. 'I'm sure there is.' First Hicks was killed and now Xenia was missing — vanished without a trace. What else could happen?

He soon found out. Colonel Martin himself — commander of the 17^th ACR — arrived on a support APC. He was dressed in a brand new model 459 military biosuit but he carried no weapons on him. He stood atop the turret of one of the APCs and commandeered the main dispatch channel so he could address the entire regiment (except the tanks, which had disappeared).

'Men and women of the 17^th,' he said, his gravelly voice transmitted in clear digital audio. 'We don't have much time before things start hopping around here again so I'll spare you the blathering bullshit about