“We can try burrowing deeper. But if they start throwing rocks at us, it won’t make a bit of difference.”

There were reluctant nods around the table as the colonel shook his head. “I’m all out of tricks,” he admitted. “If anyone else has an idea, now’s the time.”

The various Alliance members looked at one another, but no one spoke up. Colonel Holme folded his hands as he addressed the group. “The only other suggestion I can offer is that we scatter. Send squad-sized units in every direction. The odds of the Troika hitting everyone, even with a KEW strike, are small. Some will survive, at least.”

“They’ll be cut to pieces by the Troika forces still out there,” Bratok Dolth countered. “Besides, what is the point? The enemy won’t rest until they’re finished with us, whether it takes a week or a year. They have the time and the numbers to ensure no one left on this planet survives.”

No one had an argument for that. Finally, Decurion Yaannissi turned to the trader Quogat Bouki, who until now had remained silent. “The races you’ve been in contact with. Your clients. Surely one of them will come?” he asked.

“I have spoken at length to them,” the trader admitted, “and while there have been some positive results, there is still a great deal of fear and inertia to overcome.” He shrugged unhappily. “I would not expect a rescue from them. Not in time to matter.”

“Then what are we to do?” Paygan Xeing asked. “If we tell those under our command that all is lost, we need not wait for the Troika to finish us. We will do it for them.”

“Agreed,” Holme nodded. “Morale is already on the verge of collapse. If that kind of information leaks out, the Troika will have a ringside seat to a bloodbath, and they won’t need to lift a finger.”

“Then what do we tell them?” Administrator Pujai inquired.

The colonel shrugged. “To hold their positions, and wait for the next attack,” he said at last.

“See anything?”

Rúna scanned the terrain out in front of them, before shaking her head. “Nothing,” she answered. “Looks like they’ve pulled back.”

“Of course they have,” Rivka sneered. “They don’t want to get caught in the blast.”

The two NCOs shared a look. The gunner wasn’t wrong, though under normal circumstances they would have shut her down to keep her from infecting the others with her venom. Now, there seemed to be little point.

Kai adjusted the magnification on his own helmet and took another look for himself. “I don’t like it,” he said finally, “it’s too quiet out there.”

“Because they pulled back,” Doc reminded him.

“Maybe,” the sergeant grunted, though it didn’t look like he bought it.

“I don’t understand,” Arthur spoke up. “Why are we just standing here? If they’re going to bomb us, shouldn’t we be… oh, I don’t know… somewhere else, maybe?”

His team leader gave him a weary shake of her head. “There’s nowhere to go,” she told him, thankful none of the others had overheard their conversation with the Paygan. If they had…

She’d questioned her choice a thousand times since then and had been tempted more than once to tell the Ixian she’d changed her mind, only to circle back around once more and stand by her original decision. Either way, she’d be betraying someone. Two months ago she wouldn’t have even considered it, but that Rúna hadn’t seen the things she had.

Sighing, she shoved those thoughts aside. She’d made her choice, and she’d live with it, however long she still had. Kai had backed her without hesitation, but she could tell he’d wrestled with it just as she had. Things were simpler before, she thought to herself. You took a job; you got paid; you left. End of story. If things got too hairy, you’d bail and make it up on the next contract. Casualties were minimal, not like the fucking meat-grinder that Sonoitii Prime had become.

Rúna went back to scanning the perimeter. It was pointless, but she had to do something to keep her mind from spiraling out of control. She swept across the landscape, searching the scrub and rocks for any sign of the enemy, though it made no sense for them to attack, not after their last assault…

… wait… what was that?

She zoomed in, her breath catching in her chest, as her fears were confirmed. “Kai,” she whispered, “we’ve got movement.”

He was beside her in a flash. “Where?” he demanded, scouring the borders of their stronghold on his own.

“One hundred thirteen degrees, just to the right of that knoll,” she told him, pointing it out to him.

The sergeant zeroed in on the target and slowly nodded. “Got it,” he answered, as he started examining the real estate nearest that position. Almost a minute went by as he sucked in a sharp breath. “There’s more out there,” he told her, “I can see half a dozen other positions with activity.”

The two looked at one another. “How’s our ammo?” Rúna asked calmly.

Kai shook his head. “You don’t want to know,” he told her, before switching frequencies and radioing Command.

“Stand to,” she ordered the rest of the squad, “we’re about to have company.”

Rivka swore as she manned the gun while the others fell in beside them, training their weapons on the horizon. Up and down the line other soldiers did likewise as Command passed the word, as more reports began filtering in from the other units.

With that much activity, what they were seeing was no mere probe, but a full-on assault.

“This is insane,” Doc said in disbelief. “We clobbered them last time. What makes them think they can break through now, with fewer troops?”

“Since when did orders have to make sense?” Kai snorted, “theirs or ours?”

The Troika forces must have passed some silent signal between them as they stepped into view, carefully picking their way through the rocky terrain as they approached the outer perimeter. “Hold your fire,” Kai ordered, “we need to conserve our ammo. Let ’em get close.” Arthur swallowed at that, even though he was painfully aware of just how few grenades he still had left. They took their time approaching, conserving their energy, waiting for the first sign of trouble as they neared their positions. The Allies tracked their movements as they drew closer until finally someone’s nerve broke. An energy beam lanced out, striking and toppling a Chell warrior as both sides suddenly erupted with weapons fire.

The stuttering chatter of Rivka’s gun scythed across the perimeter as she reaped the enemy with bloody-minded exhilaration, howling like a madwoman at the alien sky. Arthur carefully dropped his grenades on the enemy’s heads with precision, choosing his targets with care while conserving his ammunition, even as Rúna sought those of higher rank and position before sniping them out of existence, one by one.

And yet they still drove forward, undeterred.

Something’s not right, her mind whispered. The Troika were many things, but suicidal and stupid weren’t among them. They had to know there was no way this attack would succeed, not at these odds, so why hadn’t they pulled back? Why were they still pressing forward?

A minute later, screams and gunfire to her left and right showed her the answer.

“We’re under attack!” someone shouted over the radio before being cut off mid-shriek. Her gut reaction was one of ridicule; no shit they were under attack! Had they been sleeping? Were they fucking surprised the Troika was assaulting their position?

But as the trench line exploded in an orgy of violence, it was the shouts of “Quisling!” over the radio that she realized with sick horror what was really happening.

“Swivel the guns!” she screamed, as the Zaitai and EA forces turned traitor and ambushed the rest of the Alliance.

Rivka’s eyes went wide as she wrenched the machine gun to the left and poured it on the band of Zaitai charging their position. All she really cared about was avenging her partner, and whether that meant gunning down Eleexx or Zaitai, it was all the same to her. She’d gleefully reap them all.

A troop of EA mercs charged their position from the right, as the squad suddenly found itself besieged on three sides, fighting back-to-back. Kai clubbed down a traitor who had gotten far too close before jamming his gun’s barrel against the alien’s head and pulling the trigger. Doc had dropped his rifle and switched to the sidearm, blasting away at the enemy as he slowly gave ground. Arthur aimed and fired a grenade at point-blank range as the Troika drew near, sending a spray of blood and gore in all directions.

A red light appeared on Rúna’s gun as the energy level dropped to zero. Beam weapons sucked juice like mad and had a disturbing habit of going dry at the worst possible moment. Out of fresh battery packs she hurled it at the nearest traitor and drew her sword, her chest screaming in protest as she tore her stitches wide open. The Ixian blade was wickedly sharp, made from materials unavailable to Terrans, so as one of the Zaitai swung a rifle in her direction, she reacted by lopping off the end of the barrel… along with his right hand at the wrist. He went down screaming before she reversed her grip, sending his head soaring off towards No-man’s-land.

The fighting intensified as the enemy forces drove their attack home, when a succession of explosions rippled up and down the line, sending body parts flying in every direction as Command activated the Failsafe. The Terrans had few illusions regarding the loyalties of their new “Allies”, so they’d taken precautions. They couldn’t boobytrap their foxholes without arousing suspicion, so instead they’d done the next best thing. They’d provided their new associates with pre-made sandbags to line their fighting positions and give them added protection, some of which were equipped with metallic fragments surrounding an explosive charge. The aliens had taken refuge in their foxholes, blissfully unaware that command-detonated mines now enveloped them.

Only the brass had been surprised by the attack’s timing, touching them off too late. Most of the EA and Zaitai forces had already left their positions by the time they’d triggered the explosions, catching only a portion of them in the blasts. Terrans and loyal Allies died alongside the traitors, as only a handful knew about the Failsafe option. Security had been tight on this one, and the adage “Three can keep a secret, if two are dead,” was just as valid as it always had been.

Those unaware of their insurance policy died because of it.

Bloody meat rained down over the trenches, on both friend and foe alike. Shock waves and shrapnel are indiscriminate weapons under the best of circumstances, which did not describe the current situation at all. They tossed those that survived the blasts about like rag dolls, with even more dying because of shattered spines and ruptured organs. So great was the disturbance it briefly brought the fighting to a halt, as the stunned and disoriented warriors struggled to regain their bearings. Mere flesh had never been designed for such extreme conditions, yet the desire to live forced those that were able back to their feet, resuming their battle with murderous intent.

Even as Rúna fought for her life, she realized the two-pronged attack was no mere coincidence. How long had the Troika and the traitors been planning this? Since the very beginning? Or only after their hopes of freedom had been finally dashed?

Not that it mattered.

She drove her blade through the chest of an EA mercenary, letting him gurgle and fall as she whirled about to face her next opponent, a Chell servitor drawing a bead on her with a heavy weapon. There was no time to close the distance, so instead she hurled the sword at her attacker, the perfectly balanced blade flipping exactly once end for end, before burying itself to the hilt in the furry rodent’s belly. It squealed a high-pitched shriek of agony as she rushed forward, retrieving her scimitar and sheathing it even as it fell as she snatched up the weapon it had been carrying. A blur of motion in the corner of her eye drew her attention as she pivoted, taking aim at an Aggaaddub reptilian.

“Rúna! Get down!”

She threw herself flat without hesitation, taking cover as a burst of gunfire cleaved the air above her, only to be responded to in kind, adding a burst of her own as the gun fell silent. Up and down the line, the trenches had descended into pockets of frenzied carnage, and in the distance, she could see Ixians and Legionnaires standing with their Terran Allies as they fought the enemy to a standstill. They fought with rifles and swords and their bare hands, and even as she took down another target, Rúna witnessed a miracle.

The enemy broke, shattering like glass against the Allies’ resolve. What had been a relentless wave was now a stampede, scattering in all directions, desperate beings running for their very lives.

Stumbling to her feet, she could only stare at the impossible sight before a cry drew her attention back to the squad. Arthur was down, cradling a wounded and broken arm, his grenade launcher now a twisted hunk of metal. Blood streamed down the side of Kai’s face as he drew in ragged breaths, his gaze haunted and fractured… but it was the image of Doc kneeling beside a prone Rivka that sent her staggering towards them.

The gunner’s sightless eyes gazed at the clouds above, as the medic gently covered her face with a blanket.

“... No… oh, no…” she whispered, as she collapsed beside them.

Kai touched Doc’s shoulder. “Arthur needs you,” he said quietly. The medic looked up, his eyes wet and ancient, before nodding and taking up his bag, going to the young private as he began assessing his injuries. Kneeling beside her, the sergeant took her in his arms as she wept great wracking sobs.

The same scene was played out again and again, all across the Allied lines, as others just like them fought to save those that were wounded and mourned those that were lost. Broken and bleeding, the survivors struggled to hold on.

It should have ended there. By any just standard, the Allies had more than earned their victory, pyrrhic though it might be. They had been through hell and back again, wanting nothing more than a moment of well-deserved peace.

But it was not to be.

A flash suddenly split the heavens, a beam of light streaking down to the surface faster than the mind could comprehend. As it impacted, a burst brighter than the sun forced those in the vicinity to shield their eyes and turn away as a ball of flame rocketed out in all directions, sending a mushroom-shaped cloud of debris soaring skywards. Rúna’s scream was cut short as Kai threw her to the ground and shielded her with his body, mere moments before the shockwave crashed over them as everything went black.