given half a chance, I would have slept in until noon, but the universe had different plans for me, which kicked in just before dawn.

The sky turned pink before the sun came up over Green World, just the way it did back on Earth. The sea, however, was slate black—and that’s what caused the ruckus among the more alert members of our legion. About a kilometer out from the shore of the island, in every direction at once, the water started… churning.

The black water turned white, like a big crasher was coming toward the beach, but these disturbances were way too far out from shore. This ominous behavior spooked our noncom sentries, and they sounded the alarm.

The first I became aware of it was when a whooping siren began going off. As my mind and body were as well-trained as a psychologist’s pet rat, I found myself responding without thought. I sat up on my bunk and began pulling on boots before my eyes were open.

“McGill? McGill!”

A familiar female voice was talking out of my tapper. I pretty much knew who it had to be, so I mumbled my greetings in return.

“Morning, Tribune. What seems to be the trouble?”

Galina looked upset. She was, in fact, freaked out. “Look at your bloody tapper, James! Are you sleeping? Are you seriously sleeping through a predawn raid?”

“Huh?”

Blinking and squinting, I managed to use my bleary vision well enough to make out the churning water. It ringed the island in a rippling pattern.

“That’s weird…” I said.

“You don’t recognize it? Is this your pet, that thing you found out there on the bottom of the sea?”

“I don’t rightly know. I never saw it get near the surface. Although… you know, I think it did follow us up into the shallows at the end.”

“That wasn’t in your report.”

“No, probably not. It wasn’t a confirmed sighting or anything. But I am sure that this bubbling water-trick can’t be our prankster sea monster. He wasn’t big enough to encircle our entire island. Not by a longshot.”

“James, did it ever occur to you that there could be more than one of these things? That after you led it right up here to our island, it might have gone off swimming back down to monster-town? Maybe it spent the night gathering up its friends for an attack.”

“Huh…” I said, chewing that over. The truth was her idea hadn’t ever occurred to me. I’d never thought of it at all.

“You’re useless. Get your unit down to the north beach. You’re being deployed there with the rest of Graves’ cohort. Turov out.”

That was it, she was gone. She didn’t give me a chance to make kissy-faces at the screen or anything. That was Galina for you, she was all over me back on Earth between deployments, but out on an alien planet it was like she didn’t know me at all.

Yawning and stretching, I marched out of my tent and found a ring of scared-looking officers and noncoms. Most of my unit had been revived by now.

“What are we going to do, sir?” Barton asked me. “Is it that thing coming up out of the water?”

“I doubt it. Just grab your gear and head for the north beach. That goes for everyone who’s back to life by now, grab your stuff and move out!”

They all began to scramble. Within ten minutes, or fifteen tops, we were trotting for the north beach. That particular path took us right up and over the high point of our island—which was only about a hundred meters above sea level.

Still, it was enough to give us the lay of the land. Out to the east, the west—and due north—the sea was bubbling.

“It’s positively boiling out there, Centurion,” Harris said. “Wouldn’t it be better if we set up right here, on this central high ground? Leeson’s 88s could command the whole beach from here.”

“They probably could—but that’s not where we’ve been posted.”

Grumbling, Harris gave up and fell back to harangue his heavies. They were lagging behind due to their bigger loads. Even with exoskeletal help, an extra hundred kilos of gear took its toll.

Soon enough, we reached the beach in question. It was rocky, like all the beaches on this godforsaken lump of dirt we’d been stationed on. At least there was a modicum of cover to be had between the boulders.

Not being a total idiot, despite the sage opinion of countless dipshits in my legion, I lined up my troops about fifty paces from the shoreline. There was decent cover here, and we could hit anything on the beach without getting any closer to the water.

Off to my right and left, more units rolled up and set up camp. We were spaced about a hundred paces apart, just out of shouting distance. There was a stiff wind coming up from the sea, but I could see Manfred’s troops flipping us off, even if I couldn’t hear their actual insults.

“That squatty troglodyte,” Barton complained to me. “He’s always belittling our unit.”

“What? Manfred? Nah, he means well. He’s a dick, sure… but he’s a friend of mine.”

“That’s not surprising, sir.”

I glanced at her reproachfully, and she straightened up. “Sorry, sir. That was an unprofessional comment.”

Laughing, I waved for her to take her lights to the most forward boulders. She was a good sort, even if she didn’t like Manfred and his antics.

Leeson hustled up next to me a moment later. His men had been in the rear of the formation, as always. Made up of muscle-bound weaponeers with heavy kits and all the specialist nerds in the unit, his platoon was always last in line.

“Sir! I want to set up about a hundred meters back, on that rise over there.”

I squinted in the direction he indicated, but I shook my head. “Nope.

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