Harry sat in the section set aside for visiting contractors. There were some things he

could do to make the place more comfortable. He decided that just being able to camp

out at the moment was good enough.

At least the review board was allowing him that much. How many humans could say

they had slept under two alien skies?

Milla had decided to amass as many points as she could. She stood at the wall and

fired at anything that looked like it was coming too close to her. Each blast swept part

of the mountain clear.

Harry didn’t begrudge her that. This was probably the first time she had been allowed

to cut loose. He doubted her beams of death were welcome inside cities full of

civilians.

He had lucked out being able to farm Wallens through his drones and then being able

to create Bolos that were filling up his buying power as soon as he ordered anything.

The others had not been able to do anything like that where they were based.

They had been involved in heavy fighting, but their points had gone right back into

keeping them alive. They didn’t have the luxury of sitting back and letting their

creations do all of the work.

If only he could find the source as easily as he was clearing this planet.

Striking at a brain behind things would ease up the invasion in his opinion. The

grunts weren’t smart enough for the basic tactics and strategy that Guy and Marques

thought was going on.

His major problem after surviving combat on Delgas was his review board. He didn’t

like they hadn’t ruled on what he couldn’t do. He didn’t want to have the threat of

being removed hanging over his head. On the other hand, there was nothing he could

do about it.

He decided it was like any other job. The bosses were giving you a hard time? Go

home and have a beer. You couldn’t do anything about it unless you were prepared

to commit violence.

It wouldn’t be the first time he had been fired from a job since he had taken his

discharge from the Marines. It probably wouldn’t be his last.

He checked his visor. The walls were slowly extending south. He wondered how

many of the xenos were already inside the perimeter. They would try to get through

the bottom of the closing triangle. Junior and Brophy would have to help clean up the

mess before they could post an all clear.

He wondered how long it would take for the surviving plants to start growing again.

He had examined the forest when he set up Betty Lou. There were more dead trees

than living, and he hadn’t seen any animals at all.

He doubted there were any fish other than the ones who could dive deep enough to

get away from the xenos.

Part of resettling the planet would require more animals placed to help the ecosystem

get back on track. He supposed the Bernies would help with that.

He wondered if they allowed retired contractors to become farmers on resettled

worlds, or dump them back where they started.

He supposed he would find out when he retired, if he ever did.

“Harry?,” asked John. “We might have a problem.”

“Go ahead,” said Harry.

“The mana trackers are registering a gate,” said John. “It looks like it is forming south

of our proposed triangle, but it is forming.”

“How big a gate?,” asked Harry. He got to his feet. He could feel the need to move

to counter the approach in his bones.

“It looks gigantic from up here,” said Garry.

“And we know gates work two ways,” said Harry. “So we’re getting reinforcements

here, or they are attacking some other planet. Either way, we have to do what we can

to stop it. You guys think of something. I’ll go down and look at it.”

“Switch down to Brophy?,” asked John.

“Yeah,” said Harry. “I’ll let Milla know and head down to see what I can see. She can

head up to the Jordan when she is done taking pot shots at the xenos.”

“Don’t go by yourself,” said John. “Buddy system all the way.”

“She’s not really my buddy,” said Harry.

“Do it,” said John. “I’m going to see what I can do from up here.”

Harry shrugged. Maybe this would be another thing Milla had never seen before. That

would make her day, he supposed. He dragged himself off the bench and went in

search of his tiny sidekick.

“I have to head back to work, Betty Lou,” said Harry. “Have you seen Milla?”

“She is about ten more degrees starboard,” said the machine. “Be careful looking at

the super gate. Nothing good ever comes out of one of them.”

“That’s about what I figured,” said Harry. “Let me collect my minion, and we’ll be

on our way.”

He found Milla walking up and down the wall. She raised her hands and a random

assortment of monsters were sliced to pieces. It took her a while to reload, but the

various automaton were pouring their own fire into the enemy.

“We have to go,” said Harry. “John said a super gate is forming and I told him I

would go down and look for him. You can head up to the Jordan while I look at what

I can do about the situation.”

“I think we should both look at this super gate,” said Milla. “You might need my

superior abilities.”

“I doubt that,” said Harry. He led the way back to the gate. “I would rather you be on

the Jordan and out of the way in case I have to do something reviewable.”

“You are not the only one who has done things that have made a board be called

for behavior,” said Milla. She didn’t quite hide the satisfaction of the memory. “I too

have done things that have flouted the rules of the pact.”

“I don’t think you are supposed to brag about it,” said Harry.

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“I am merely stating facts,” said the tiny titan.

“All right,” said Harry. “Take care, Betty Lou. I’ll do what I can about real birds.”

“Be careful, Papa,” said the Bolo. “These readings are bad.”

Harry and Milla stepped on the gate. They switched to the gate next to Brophy. Milla

floated up to the top deck of the machine and looked around. Harry had to squeeze

along the hull and walk to the bow.

“This is bad,” said Milla.

Harry extended his sight with his visor. He grimaced at what he saw. Someone was

sending them a care package bigger than his machine son. He needed to come up with

something quick to solve this. His mind went back to his first five minutes on the job.

“Milla, head back to the Jordan,” said Harry. “There’s nothing you can do about this.

Brophy, get your cousins and retreat back to where Junior is.”

“This is war,” said Brophy.

“There’s nothing you can do about this,” said Harry. “Head out. I’ll buy you some

time. We’re not ready to take something like this on head first.”

“What do you expect to do, Harry?,” said Milla.

“Nothing,” said Harry. “I’m going to go out there and attract some attention while my

machines fall back. There’s nothing they can do about this. And there’s nothing you

can do either. See if you can get John to guide some rocks down and see if that will

do something.”

“I don’t like this at all,” said Milla.

“I’ll be all right,” said Harry. “I will be on the Jordan in a couple of minutes. John is

going to need your eyes.”

“Do not try to take my title from me,” said Milla. She stepped on the gate. “It is

precious.”

“I’m already the better demon of death,” said Harry. He waved at her disappearing

form while she sputtered in outrage. “Get going, Brophy. I don’t want you to be hurt.”

“I’m your buckaroo, Da,” said the Bolo.

“Then do what I say,” said Harry. “I will catch up with you. Just back off until I deal

with this. Wait.”

Harry looked through his quartermaster menu. He bought five blocks of machinery

and affixed them to Brophy’s front. He nodded at them. Now he needed some way to

trigger them.

Brophy didn’t have hands.

“I need five bees,” said Harry. Five of his machines paused in their patient orbit of

shooting particle streams and joined him. “You five ride on these blocks. When

you see immediate danger, you push the buttons. Got it?”

The five machines buzzed at him before settling in place.

“All right, Brophy,” said Harry. “That should be some extra protection when you

need it. Start rolling.”

“When you coming home, Da?,” Brophy asked.

“I don’t know, son,” said Harry. “But we’ll get together then. We’ll have a good time

then.”

Harry summoned a truck designed for fast offroading and carrying enough weapons

to give him a chance. He loaded the back with the biggest antimatter bomb he could

build. At least the review board had given him that back when they reinstated his

menu.

They probably wouldn’t like what he was about to do with it.

Harry got in the truck. The armored calvary retreated from around him, while Brophy

still fired at the crowd of xenos trying to take advantage of the retreat.

“What are you doing, Harry?,” asked Nick.

“Going for a drive,” said Harry. “Nick? What do you do when you can’t recover a

contractor’s body? Do you pay for a headstone?”

“We have a ceremony here and put in whatever we can recover to the vault,” said

Nick. He sounded worried over whatever his contractor planned to do other

than a nice quiet ride through a horde of murderous monsters. “Sometimes an epitaph

is added.”

“So if I wanted an epitaph, you would put it on my vault?,” asked Harry.

“Yes,” said Nick.

“I want my epitaph to be BETTER THAN MILLA,” said Harry. “And I want you to

tell her at the funeral so she knows.”

“I don’t see why I should do that,” said Nick.

“It’s my way of having the last word,” said Harry.

“Fine,” said Nick. “I will put it on the stone and tell her so she knows. I don’t see the

point, but I will do it.”

“Thanks,” said Harry. “Now I have to concentrate, so be quiet.”

The target stood somewhere between fifty and seventy stories. It was about ten blocks

across. Something was halfway across from wherever was on the other side. There

were too many limbs with too many mouths and eyes as far he was concerned.

The weapon was an antimatter bomb designed to wipe out a large city. There was no

telling how much it would do on the flat ground around them. The hope was to kill

the giant and anything close enough on both sides of the gate.

The problems that prevented the delivery of the weapon to the target was a mass of

xenos in its way, the vehicle was fast but small with not enough weapons to punch

through them, and anything could rip the bomb apart if it wasn’t delivered to the zone

on time.

He let the weapons fire on their own as he directed the vehicle toward the gate. He

wanted to get away and let the blast take care of his enemies. He doubted that was

going to happen.

He considered better words for his tombstone. He couldn’t think of anything he was

really committed to having.

He smiled at that.

He would have to jump at some time. It would be like jumping into a blender. He

should have brought some of his bees with him. He didn’t think he would get far after

the bomb went off.

He hit one of the smaller flying xenos with the front of his truck. He winced at the

impact but kept driving. He couldn’t stop now that was in the middle of things. He

hoped Brophy and the rest of his computer offspring fell back like they were

supposed to do.

He felt something hit his truck. He wasn’t going to make it to the gate. He struggled

to keep the wheels down as he turned away from the impact.

He had to get to the gate and get away from the blast.

He turned to point his truck at the gate again. He had to keep his wheels down. He

should have called for a super bee as cover.

How much closer could he get the truck?

Monsters hit the truck and began ripping it apart. The weapons still fired on any

enemy the truck could sense. They just couldn’t reach the xenos above their sightline.

The top of the truck started coming off.

Harry pulled his Ripper forward to point at the widening crack where the roof was

separating from the rest of the truck. He waited until he could see the enemy before

he emptied the weapon at the things on top of his truck. Ash drifted down, but he

wasn’t confident that he had hit them all.

He decided that if he jumped out of the truck, the xenos would go after him and leave

the truck to finish the mission. And he needed to turn right and get away from in front

of the gate.

He should have asked Milla for a blueprint for her beam weapon.

He opened the door of the truck. He summoned a force bubble and jumped out of the

moving truck when he was ready. He pulled the ring before hitting the ground and

bounced along as the vehicle continued forward.

The titan was almost out of the gate as the truck missed one of its legs and rolled

into the gate. Neither paused along the passing.

“Track the truck signal, Nick,” said Harry. His bubble rolled to a stop with xenos

charging him. The bubble stopped working a second later.

He had to get away from in front of the gate. When the bomb exploded, it would

do something. He wanted reality to block the blast from him.

He threw down a flash bang as he ran. He wanted to get enough space to get a reload

for the Ripper. Then he could shoot as he ran.

He was surprised when a flight of bees and birds flew over him, spraying his enemies

with lightning. He smiled as he called another box of ammunition into existence. He

dropped the empty box out of the magazine well and slammed the full box into the

rifle and charged it.

Harry didn’t bother lecturing his creations, or their avian counterparts. He had to keep

moving so he didn’t die.

He fired his rifle in short bursts to keep on the move. His bees and the birds orbited

around him, concentrating fire on targets as they strafed through the air. The group

tried to push through the xenos rushing them, but were losing ground.

“We’re not going to make it,” said Harry. “Get in as close as you can. Direct fire to

keep them off me.”

Harry flipped through his menu as the bees and birds burned through anything

trying to get close to him. They had bought him time when he thought he was alone.

He had to do what he could to give them a chance.

He made a selection and built a closed shell with its own force field generator. He

activated the field when the generator and projector said they were ready. The

armored shell could melt around them if the force field bubble failed.

He had the room. He called for another force field projector to be fitted in with its

own generator. He cut the second field on. The blue glow intensified around the

group of combatants.

“This might not work,” said Harry. “Thanks for coming out when you should have

run.”

The different robotic animals made noises of comfort at him. One of the bees landed

on his shoulder.

The world flipped around on him. He hit the inside of the field as gravity stopped

working. He wondered if this was when he died.