Walters covered the side. Waverly never lifted his head, just stayed on his communicator non-stop.
“Sir, would you come over here for a minute?” Walters called.
“Uh, wait a minute. I see a tank, and more guys.”
“Okay. There’s one over here, too. They’re coming at us from two directions. We only have one gun, so we’ll deal with them one at a time.”
Trexler gulped and hurried over. Walters didn’t hesitate. He fired three quick shots at the tank, traversed the gun and fired at the Chessori behind it as the smoke cleared, then went after the tank again to finish it off. Trexler took several shots, as well, while Walters dragged the gun and its tripod to the front corridor. While the gun was being moved, Waverly got up from the floor, peeked out the side window, and loosed two short bursts, then returned to the papers spread about him on the floor.
“Here we go, sir.” Walters sent a long stream of bolts at the second tank, then moved closer to the window with his assault rifle, and both he and Trexler took out the attackers of the second wave.
Trexler heard heavy firing from the back of the building and looked at Walters. “Do you think they need help?”
“No, sir. They’ll call if they do.” He leaned sideways for a moment and loosed a burst. “Looks like a skirmish line coming this way.”
Trexler took a few peeks out his window and saw movement far to his left. “More out here, far to the left,” he called to Walters.
“Move down to that corner. You’ll have a better field of fire, sir.”
He looked at Waverly who was engrossed in a conversation on his communicator. “Hey, Jim!” he called. “Want to help out here a little?”
Waverly looked up. “Do what you can. If you need help, call.” He dismissed Trexler and went back to his conversation, moving some papers around on the floor as he looked for something.
Trexler hustled down to the far corner where he was joined by Lieutenant Stevens. They spent a lot of time dodging blaster bolts coming through the windows and returning fire, but eventually there was no more movement over the smoky ground.
“We’re moving up one floor, sir. Let Walters know,” Stevens ordered, then he hustled back to his corner in a crouch, almost on hands and knees as he went by windows.
Trexler gulped. He’d run the full length of the front of the building without even thinking about the windows. He peeked out a window again, saw no movement, and crawled the whole hundred feet back to Walters. Waverly glanced up from his papers but immediately went back to his communicator.
“All clear there, sir?” Walters asked.
“For the moment. Lieutenant Stevens asked me to tell you he’s moving up one floor.”
“Good idea. We’ll do the same when the colonel is ready.”
Trexler went back to his wall, then got back on his communicator. “How you doing, Tom?” he called.
“Are you in trouble, sir? I’m a little out of position, but I’ll head back your way.”
“No, we’re fine at the moment. I wouldn’t mind a short reconnaissance flight over us when you have the time.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
“What’s going on up there? Are you guys okay?”
“Fine, sir. Just busy.”
“Why isn’t the port secure yet?”
“It’s secure, sir, but the airspace above it isn’t. I’d love to drop these guys off with you, but I can’t afford to be stationary that long.”
“What’s the problem? Can’t a cruiser just hover over us? No one will get by it.”
“Uh, well sir, one squadron is spread out in high orbit dealing with the Chessori, and the rest of our ships are spread out around the planet at low altitude.”
“Spread out around the planet? Why?”
“Colonel Waverly is trying to protect a number of important installations: power plants, armories, financial centers, and so on. I just finished dropping off four squads at an armory after we spotted Chessori there trying to break in. The other frigate has actually dropped most of its load already, small groups here and there.”
“I thought we were trying to secure the port, Tom.”
“It’s mostly secure on the ground, sir, but they’re still clearing buildings and ships to make sure. As soon as I can get my load in, they’ll start working toward you and the rest of government center.”
Just then, a tremendous explosion struck near Trexler. He hit the floor on his back, hard. When he looked up through the dust, he looked out through a great, gaping hole some ten feet away. Four tanks and lots of Chessori raced toward the building.
“Tom, you’d better get back here. We have four tanks in front of us and closing quickly.”
“Two minutes, sir.”
Waverly was picking papers up out of the dust. Walters already had the big gun packed up. They headed towards the stairwell at a trot, passing by Trexler. He fell in behind them and followed them up the stairs to the next level. They went to the same corner, and Walters set up the gun as far back as he could get from the nearest window. Waverly took his own window near the corner, and Trexler decided he’d move down the hall to the far corner.
On his knees again, of course.
Walters opened up with the big gun, and Waverly shot his widow out, then started firing. Trexler followed his example. The tanks were about 50 meters away and stopped. The corner of the second floor they’d just come from was taking a terrible beating. Walters took out one tank, then started on another, then the Chessori ground troops suddenly started running pell-mell for the building.
Glancing right, Trexler saw why. The frigate was upon them. It hesitated for just a moment, positioned directly over the building with its rear shields glowing. Trexler looked out the side window and saw three Chessori traders coming in behind the frigate, firing continuously. All the guns on the frigate opened up, some firing toward the Chessori ships, the rest firing at the Chessori ground troops. The ground near the building erupted. Windows, those that were left, blew out, then the frigate was off at high speed. Two fighters swooped in from above the building, and Trexler just got a glimpse of them before two of the Chessori traders exploded a few hundred meters from the building. Wreckage and heat pounded the building as they crashed nearby. He thought one of the defensive positions at the port might have fired at the remaining Chessori, but with all the noise and confusion, he wasn’t certain. When he next looked, the ships were gone.
Waverly and Walters took the stairs at full speed, headed down. Trexler searched for targets, even leaning out the window a little and loosing shots at the Chessori huddled against the building. He heard firing and grenades from down in the stairwell and leaned farther out, shooting at any Chessori he could locate. He was afraid to use grenades since he didn’t know where Waverly and Walters were.
When there were no more Chessori to shoot at, he went back to his normal search pattern, checking to the front and side of the building. Sporadic shooting sounded from the stairwell, but he felt that he was needed more as a lookout than trying to confuse the two experts down there. He kept moving from wall to wall, but there were no more Chessori targets.
He called the frigate. “You okay, Tom?”
“We’re fine, sir. How about you?”
“I think we’re in the clear at the moment. There’s some fighting inside the building, but I think it’s under control. Nice shooting on those tanks.”
“We took out some others coming at you from your rear again, too.”
“What else is going on out there?”
“Waverly’s guys are starting to move out from the port, but not toward you. They’re going after a large batch of Chessori holed up in a hotel. We don’t want to take out the hotel with a ship, we’d kill too many innocent people. I need to check on a couple things, but I’ll come back if you call.”
“How’s it going out in space?”
“I really don’t know, sir. My focus has been the planet, and I’ve had to tune out what’s happening out there. Lots of chatter is all I can say.”
Trexler heard pounding steps coming up the stairwell. He threw his communicator down and huddled next to
