Planet Wrecker

-73-

The coil chamber was murder, a gauntlet of death that halved the number of Jovian space marines. Marten and Omi dragged out heat-fatigued men from the hellhole. Then coils in the middle of the chamber began to explode.

“Shut the door,” said Osadar.

“Nadia!” cried Marten. “I haven’t seen Nadia.”

Osadar shoved Marten away as more coils erupted in the vast chamber. With cyborg strength and speed, she slammed the heavy door shut and engaged the locks.

Marten’s last vision was of a space marine on the floor, raising his arm for aid and the door closing on his last hope. Then explosions caused the hall to tremble, and the door buckled and seemed as if it would blow into them. But it held.

As if in a dream, Marten turned toward Osadar. He was aware of the rifle in his hands, and he contemplated aiming it at the cyborg.

“We would have all died if Osadar hadn’t done that,” Omi said.

Marten’s tongue was thick in his mouth. “Nadia,” he whispered. Had that been her raising her arm to plead with him to help her? He never should have brought her to this nightmare. He—

“Sound off,” Omi said through the headphones. “Let’s see who made it. First Platoon, begin.”

“Thebes here,” said the Group-Leader.

“Jason.”

“Cleon.”

“Marten, where are you?”

That was Nadia’s voice. Marten’s arms went limp as he looked around. “Nadia,” he said, using his override function. “Raise your arm.”

In the back of a group of space marines, Nadia raised her arm. Her vacc-suit was black and one of the lines had torn free. But she was alive.

As the others continued to sound off, Marten waded through a group of marines and clutched Nadia’s gloved hand.

“You’re alive,” he said.

She nodded her helmeted head.

“What do we do now?” A half moment later, someone strong turned Marten around. The armored speaker was tall. It was Osadar. “What do we do now?” she asked again.

Marten had to think about it. Nadia was alive. To keep her alive, he had to kill all the cyborgs. “Right,” he said. “We made it through the exhaust. Now its time to come out of here like the Japanese did to us. Do you remember?”

“Japan?” asked Osadar.

“That’s right,” Marten said. “You weren’t with us then. It was Stick and Turbo during the Japan Campaign.”

“What do we do here on Asteroid E?” asked Osadar.

“We make like rats,” Marten said. Nadia was alive. It was time to keep fighting. “Right,” Marten said. “Here’s the next step.”