Harry realized he should have installed handholds on the inside of the shell as he

bounced around inside the blue field. He felt the air leave him after one terrible

impact and then everything was still. The field cut off.

Harry tried to think. He decided he should see if the walls of his cell were hot to the

touch. If they were, he needed to wait for them to cool down. If they weren’t, he

would wait until they were cool before trying to get out.

“Everybody okay?,” asked Harry. “I think we’re alive.”

A series of buzzes and chirps answered his question.

“How are you alive?,” asked Nick. “You should be deader than a doornail.”

“I might be if I can’t cut a hole through the metal around me,” said Harry. “Is the gate

still open?”

“I’ll check,” said Nick. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“You hear that, boys?,” said Harry. “Nick made a joke. He told me not to go

anywhere.”

None of the robots laughed at him. He smiled under his helmet. He knew he was

lucky to be alive. The only real question was had he taken down the giant xeno that

had stepped out of the gate.

Was the xenos trying to get to him right now?

He had to know what was going on outside. Then he had to get to a place of safety.

He doubted that he could fight the titan on its terms at the moment.

He took a breath. He knew his air was running out. He had an emergency reserve in

the helmet, but it wouldn’t last long. So he needed an air hole at least.

He also had the pod he could summon and use for however long it would last. He just

needed to summon it.

“The gate is closed,” said Nick. “The pings are gone on the plains except for one big

one. It looks like you didn’t kill the big one after all.”

“That’s marvelous,” said Harry. “I need to get out of here before I run out of air. And

then I need to finish that thing off.”

“I told John that you were alive,” said Nick. “He is doing what he can to finish the job

from orbit. Milla is mad.”

“Tell her she will never be as good as me,” said Harry.

“No,” said Nick. “You shouldn’t haze her. She has fought for us a long time.”

“She isn’t a marine,” said Harry.

“What does that mean?,” said Nick.

“You’re not a marine either,” said Harry.

One of the bees buzzed to one side.

“I will make you a marine and get you the paperwork,” said Harry.

A little jet trail followed the bee as it danced in the air.

“Stay in there, and get another force field up,” said Nick. “I think John is going to

drop rocks on this thing until it’s dead.”

“How much more can it take?,” asked Harry. “I dropped the biggest bomb on that

thing I could and its still alive. That’s not fair.”

“You won’t even get an assist if John does kill it,” said Nick. “At least you killed a

legion of xenos on the plains and on the other side of the gate.”

“Brophy and the cavalry?,” asked Harry.

“They are still in action,” said Nick. “The blast might have killed some of them, but

the walls you put in place saved most of your forces. They are trying to finish the job

and kill the titan xeno while John gets a big enough rock to do the job.”

“I think I have to get out of here,” said Harry. “A big enough rock to finish the job

could wreck me too.”

“Brophy can probably finish the job before John gets a rock and puts it in play,” said

Nick. “The main thing is there’s almost nothing of the plains in one direction.

Everything is ripped up. And then we have the three craters where you and John

wrecked the temples before saving Xin and Hei.”

“We remodel planets for cheap,” said Harry. He pulled himself to his feet. “Let me

know when John’s rock is falling. Until then, I need to do what I can to get out of

here and get moving. I don’t know how much this thing can take and I don’t want to

find out after an asteroid attack.”

“This could get you killed,” said Nick.

“Staying here could get me killed,” said Harry. “I would rather take my chances

moving than being trapped in a tin can with no air.”

“All right,” said Nick. “If you get killed, don’t come crying to me. Savvy?”

“I know, I know,” said Harry. “Bernies have no compassion.”

He toggled on his menu and flipped through the ordering details until he found

something that could be useful. He ordered the tool and immediately opened the box

it came in.

“All right,” said Harry. “I’m going to cut through this shell and you guys can fly out

of here. Then I will climb out and head toward Brophy. Once I am sure I can’t be

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hurt, I will check on Brophy’s gate so I can get out of here without hurting myself.”

“Why not make your own gate right there?,” said Nick.

“I only want gates that are being actively defended by our forces,” said Harry. “It will

cut down on people going to a side gate and getting killed right off the bat.”

“I guess that seems reasonable when the rest of the xenos show up,” said Nick. “We

already know they will go for anyone who might be caught out here in the open.”

“Exactly,” said Harry. “All right. Let’s get this done.”

Harry activated his cutting blade. A piece of darkness unfurled from the handle. Harry

stabbed into the shell in front of him. He pulled the blade down, then around a couple

of times. He cut the blade off. He put it in his armor’s pocket. He braced himself as

well as he could and then pushed on the wall and pushed the cut section out of the

way.

It crumbled away against his shoulder as he pushed out. He emerged from the hole

like a baby bird emerging from its egg. He took a moment to look around. He

couldn’t tell where he was from where he should have been.

He wondered how he was still alive. He decided that good eating and exercise had

ruled the day.

“Hey Brophy!,” he called into his radio. “Got your ears on? What’s your ten twenty?”

“Eastbound and down, loaded up and trucking,” said Brophy. “Gonna do what they

say can’t be done.”

“Nick?,” said Harry. He rolled over the pitted remains of his protective cover and hit

the ground on his feet. He felt dizzy for the time it took him to blink his eyes. “Can

you show me where Brophy is?”

A hash tag appeared on his visor screen.

“Thanks, buddy,” said Harry. He got himself to point in the direction he wanted to go

and started walking. He spotted Brophy’s guns firing in the distance. He had no idea

how far he had flown, but he was glad to be alive in the face of what he had done.

“Harry,” said Nick. “I think you have taken too much of a beating to be wandering

around without support.”

“I’ll be okay when I reach Brophy’s gate,” said Harry. “I wonder if that xeno is still

alive.”

“Brophy’s gate is gone,” said Nick. “You blew it up with the rest of the plains. You

did something insanely reckless, Harry.”

“I did what I had to do to save Brophy, and the offensive,” said Harry. “He’s a

cornerstone of our invasion and cover for the other contractors that might want to

come here when we have to move on.”

“There has to be other ways of doing things,” said Nick. “You almost died.”

“I can’t let my kid down,” said Harry. “It’s not manly.”

“I think you need to be put in a time out until you don’t do anything this stupid

again,” said Nick.

“Da!,” said Brophy when he saw the staggering figure and his horde of mechanized

marauders approaching. “I want to be just like you.”

“Oh no,” said Nick.

“Eat your vegetables and you will,” said Harry. He looked around at the scoured zone

of his attack. He saw a mass of flesh taking the Bolo’s shots while trying to pull itself

back together enough to continue its charge. “I have something I have to do. I will be

right back.”

Harry started walking toward the mass of flesh. He supposed that his attack had cut

most of the minor limbs and the legs right off the thing. That had dropped it in place

as the wave continued. He hoped he hadn’t lost a lot of his calvary to this attack.

He toggled his menu as he watched the energy attacks from his surviving bees and

Brophy do nothing to the struggling mass. If he let it get back on its feet, then it could

still destroy the Bolo if it got within reach. The machine would not be able to do

anything back.

He wasn’t going to let that happen. He had created the siblings, he had started this

invasion. Everything was his responsibility. He would love to pawn things off on the

Bernies, and his other contractors. He just wouldn’t.

He summoned a smaller version of the antimatter bomb when he was close enough

to throw it against the mass of giant xeno. He walked away, mentally counting as he

went. He waved his bees to follow him so they wouldn’t be caught in the blast.

The bomb, grenade, went off. It exploded the xeno into lesser pieces that turned into

ash. Some of it still remained, but now it was vulnerable to the particle beams and

other weapons that Harry’s creations carried on them.

Harry slumped against the body of the Bolo and closed his eyes. He sat there for a

long time. He didn’t know why he felt so weak. He put it down to low blood sugar.

“What do you think, Brophy?,” asked Harry. He slapped the pitted side of his

mechanical son.

“You’re a mean motor scooter and real go getter,” said Brophy. “Great balls of fire.”

“Everyone is all gangster,” said Harry. “Until someone drops a big enough bomb on

their playground.”

“Can you hear me, Harry?,” said Cat.

“Sure,” said Harry. “How’s it going upstairs?”

“Don’t worry about that,” said Cat. “How do you feel?”

“A little woozy,” said Harry. “I think I took some knocks even with the helmet

protecting my cranium.”

“I wouldn’t doubt it,” said Cat. “Can you gate back to the Jordan?”

“Have to buy a new gate,” said Harry. “The original is gone.”

“Up in smoke,” said Brophy.

“All right,” said Cat. “Can you make another one?”

“I just want to rest right now,” said Harry. “I need a nap.”

“Make the gate first, you knucklehead,” said John. “I’ll send a pissed off Milla down

to get you if you don’t. And I know you don’t want that to happen.”

“I’m not scared of Link’s girlfriend,” said Harry. He took on a falsetto. “Hey! There’s

a pot.”

“You will be,” said John. “Make the gate.”

“All right,” said Harry. “You’re so pushy.”

Harry struggled with his menu. He wondered why. It had worked perfectly when he

was making sure his giant adversary was dead. Maybe being tired had something to

do with it. He finally created a gate and planted it next to where Brophy was keeping

watch. He stepped on it and sat down. The familiar wrenching of atoms left him in the

Jordan’s departure deck.

“What have you done to yourself, Harry?,” said Cat. “Let’s get him up to sick bay and

see if we can fix this.”

Harry closed his eyes as his helmet was pulled off. He could sleep for a week with the

knowledge that he had saved the day. He smiled.

“Milla?,” Harry asked. He could feel sleep trying to push in on his control.

“I’m here, Harry,” said Milla. She leaned in to hear his last words.

“I asked Nick for a tombstone with an epitaph,” said Harry.

“So?,” asked Milla.

“It’s going to say BETTER THAN MILLA on it,” said Harry. He smiled at her

grumbling. He cackled for a second.

“Don’t,” said Yema. “You know better.”

They took Harry up to sick bay and placed him on a bed. Cat had asked for everything

she could get to treat the multiple races the Bernies dealt with to fight their war.

She hooked her friend up to the machines lining the bed, and waited for an

assessment to be spat out to her.

She fabricated a formula called for by the assessment and jabbed it into Harry’s arm.

The contractors and crew left him to sleep.

“I have so many questions,” said John as he led the crew back to the briefing room.

“I don’t know where to start.”

“The diagnostic said he had been exposed to a bunch of radiation,” said Cat. “The

shot I gave him is supposed to help repair the damage.”

“It’s consistent with antimatter use,” said Yema. “We have to check his legs to make

sure they aren’t radioactive also.”

“Brophy will have the pictures,” said Delmar. “Let’s ask him.”

“Connect to Brophy,” said John. “Can you hear me, Brophy.”

“You know it, Daddio,” said the machine.

“Do you have pictures of what happened?,” said John. “Harry is sick.”

“Images received,” reported the Jordan.

“Let’s look at this and see what happened,” said John. “We definitely should send it

back home if it’s bad enough.”

They watched the last stand play out and the death of the mega xeno thanks to Harry’s

desperation play. Silence reigned at the end of the film.

“I could have done that,” said Milla with a worried tone in her voice.