'B, can you come in here for a second,' she asked her. 'There's a jam in the eighty feeder and I need a little help clearing it.'
'Yeah, sure,' Belinda said, sliding under the main gun and slipping through the hatch into the cramped compartment. Xenia slammed the door and latched it the moment she was inside. 'What the...' was all Belinda had time to mutter before Xenia's soft body was crushed against hers, her mouth fastened to hers, her tongue trying to press between her lips.
'Oh my fucking god,' Xenia whispered, licking at Belinda's lips, her hands groping at her breasts, running up and down her back. 'I'm so fuckin' horny, B! Fuck me! Fuck me right now! Right here!'
'Xenia...' Belinda started but was cut off by Xenia's tongue sliding into her mouth again. She enjoyed the kiss for a few moments, returning it with swipes of her own tongue — God Xenia was a good kisser! — but then she mustered the strength to push her away.
Xenia fell backwards onto the commander's seat. She was undaunted in this rejection. 'Come on, baby,' she pleaded. 'Do it to me! Let me pull my bottoms down!'
'Keep your bottoms up,' Belinda said. 'If you take your piss-catcher and your anal vac off it'll take you twenty minutes to put them back on.'
'I don't care, baby,' she said. 'I
Belinda smiled. 'You know what the magic words are, don't you?'
'I love you!' Xenia said. 'I love you, I love you, I love you! Now show me how much you love me!'
Belinda shook her head, fighting for her resolve with everything she had. 'You're speaking out of lust right now,' she told her. 'In fact you're making quite a spectacle of yourself. I can't accept those words under these circumstances.'
'What the fuck are you talking about?' Xenia screamed. 'B, I just told you I love you.'
'I don't believe you're sincere,' she said. 'Not yet anyway.'
'Oh Jesus God,' Xenia said, almost crying in frustration. 'What does it take to get laid around this place?'
'It takes sincerity,' she said. 'And I'm not getting that right now. So how about we stop before this turns into something that will lead to hard feelings?'
Xenia's face went through a struggle but finally softened. 'Okay,' she said. 'I'm sorry. I guess I just got a little out of control.'
'That's okay,' Belinda said. 'And don't think for a minute I wasn't tempted to take advantage of you.'
Xenia nodded, sitting up a little straighter in the chair and composing herself. 'How about a little suck on my titties?' she asked. 'And then I'll suck on yours? That's not really going too far, is it?'
Belinda chuckled. 'I'm gonna go pick some strawberries,' she said, opening the main hatch. 'You want some?'
'Yeah,' Xenia. 'I guess I could suck on some of those instead.'
Belinda went out into the fields, winding between the tanks and working her way over to some of the undamaged plants. She was not the only one with this idea. Dozens of other tank crewmembers were out there as well, all of them with their biosuits down to the waist. She shared stories and rumors with them as she gathered the fruit she could find and stored them in the plastic wrapper that had been around a case of food packs. By the time she made it back to the tank — with more than a hundred strawberries in her bag and more than a dozen in her stomach — Zen had returned and was sitting on the tread guard next to Xenia.
She gave them the strawberries and both immediately began munching on them, making grunting noises of ecstasy as they chewed.
'Goddamn we grow good shit here,' Zen proclaimed as strawberry drool ran down his chin.
'Fuckin' aye,' Xenia agreed. 'It's almost as good as...' She gave a meaningful look at Belinda. 'Well... you know what its almost as good as.'
'Uh huh,' Belinda said. 'Just don't eat too many or we might use up all of our waste packs... if you know what I mean.'
'It would be worth it,' Zen replied.
'So what's the word?' Belinda asked. 'Did they tell you what we're out here for?'
'Yeah,' he said. 'They told me. We're gonna try to flank the WestHems and circle around into their rear.'
'Flank them?' Belinda asked. 'How? The only way into their rear is to blast through their lines and drive there. And that's flat out impossible.'
'We're not going to blast through anything,' Zen said. 'They came up with another way for us to do it. Something the WestHems won't be expecting.'
'Like what?
'Well... I can tell you one thing. If we try this, things are gonna be a little bumpy for a while.'
'Bumpy?' Belinda asked.
'Yeah,' he said. He told her the plan.
'Holy shit,' she said. 'Can that work?'
'They seem to think it can,' Zen said. 'We'll have to be precise and not deviate from the path even a little bit. If we do... well... you can imagine what will happen.'
'Yeah,' she said nervously. After all, it would be her that would be driving the tank. 'And when do we move out?'
'In one hour,' he said. 'Just as soon as the rest of the tanks are refueled and re-armed.'
Aboard the WSS
0900 hours
Major Wild watched General Browning deliver the latest briefing to the big three media reps. For once there were actually some elements of truth in the briefing, at least as it concerned the attack on Eden, which he was talking about now.
'As the sun rose over the Martian surface outside of Eden,' Browning told them, 'our forces had already smashed through their first line of defense with only a few casualties taken. The marines found thousands of dead Martian terrorists in the trenches when they cleared them, terrorists killed by our superior firepower in artillery and tank gunnery. We then hit the second line of defense — the so-called 'Blue Line'. There we pushed them out in less than fifteen minutes, sending them reeling in disarray, forcing them to leave thousands more of their dead and wounded behind.
'This brought us to the 'Purple Line'. We attacked in force once again and met no resistance at all. The reason for this was that the Martians had never bothered to occupy this line of defense at all. We found the same at the 'Red Line', which is the last obstacle before their final defensive positions outside Eden itself.
'We do not know if the terrorists are still holding this line or not. We are unable to determine that. If they are, they will be killed or driven off in a similar manner and it is my believe we will be standing in the city of Eden by the time the sun goes down tonight.'
'Why so long?' asked an InfoServe reporter. 'The Red Line is only ten kilometers from the main line. Is there some reason for the delay in attack?'
'Yes,' Browning responded, reading from his teleprompter at the pre-written answer to this staged question. 'There is a very good reason. Our tanks, APCs, and artillery platforms have just marched across more than a hundred kilometers of Martian wasteland and fired off most of their shells. They need to refuel and re-arm before they can move onto the final battle — assuming the Martians still have the stomach for it. These vehicles are being refueled and re-armed as we speak by the supply train units that have followed behind the advance the entire way. As soon as this process is complete — and our estimates have that occurring at around 1430 today — we will begin the final march towards the liberation of Mars' largest city.'
There was a round of staged, though seemingly spontaneous applause from the reporters, camerapersons, and sound technicians recording the broadcast. General Browning smiled shyly, as if he hadn't been expecting such an honor. And then, the unexpected happened.
'What about New Pittsburgh?' asked a pretty young reporter from ICS. 'How are things going there?'
There was a mute gasp from all in attendance, including General Browning. That question was not on the official agenda! Why in the hell had that young, ditzy girl asked it? Who had authorized that? Browning actually blanched a little. This was a live briefing and he had no pre-written answer to such an enquiry. But now that it was
