Mouse had been gripping the seat with his left hand so that Slim couldn't see. The last attack on the platoon had been brutal. Their direct connection to Elias's neural link meant they could take his viewpoint or the generated overview that they had started with while they could watch the action directly out of the windscreen of the carrier.

"Another one bites the dust." Joked Mouse, his big grin hiding the nerves that they might not succeed.

"I can't watch." Slim said, turning off the console that was showing a recruit being hammered by two Swarm as the man next to her slipped over the blood spilt from the monsters already dead at their feet.

They continued instead to watch the overview, allowing them to be more detatched from the action. The red and amber flashes meaning less than seeing a recruit fighting against the odds.

"At least this is the last attack. Right?" Asked Mouse.

"Why would you say that. Don't jinx it." Slim snapped back.

A chargrined look appeared on Mouse's face. His mouth opened, then closed as he decided not to continue the conversation for fear he would upset Slim. The false smile stayed on his face as he focused all his will on hoping the plan would succeed. As he watched the dots representing active threats decreased, the red and amber flashes indicating recruits in danger being replaced with amber and green.

"Did you fucking see that?" Asked Jared. He made cutting noises as he brought both his hands down together. "Fucking double sword take down. Why can't we do that?"

"I wish I had recorded it, switching blade to pistol to shoot through a Swarm's head and take down another. Ollie would have been screwed if Cap wasn't there." Replied Jeffrey 'Jim' Mccullough.

They were all sat resting, Elias recognising that in a minute the fever of the fight would leave them and fatigue set in. They had a hard fight and had completed the circuit around the ziggurat so the pile of Swarm bodies was just out of sight, blocked by their next target. The ziggurat. There had been no deaths. Even in his best sim he wouldn't have expected that, not with the larger group of Swarm that had attacked them. To him basic Swarm were not a challenge. Something instinctive had clicked inside him as he saw his people in need. In the eyes of the recruits he had performed miracles, being just where he was needed just at the right time. To Elias this was what he needed to do to win the fight. It had been less than a week and they could already achieve this; what could they do if they had a month or a year?

He blocked out the comments from the rest of the platoon allowing them to break protocol and chat as they rested. Instead he turned his attention to the group of six who had not passed his medical triage.

"Right. You lot. We're moving to phase three. Who can shoot?" Two hands went up. Elias nodded. They were being sensible rather than trying to be heroes. "And who can walk?" Another three hands were raised leaving the recruit with the worst injuries.

"Roy, isn't it?" Asked Elias, glad to see he had picked the right name from the roster. "You move back to the carrier, report to Ms Hui."

Elias did not miss the guilty look from the recruit sat to his side that had less severe injuries. His overview told him they were Five-One and Five-Two. A story there to be sure, but not one he needed to know. He picked two of the uninjured recruits to stretcher Roy back to the carrier along with two recruits to guard as they moved. Better to be cautious than reckless at this point. It only took a few minutes for them to return without their burden.

"Ok, listen in everyone. We're down to twenty-one effectives." He looked around with steely eyes, noting how despite being tired they were all hanging on his words.

"There are four ways in to the Zig and we need to cover them all. Everyone group in utility crews." He waited as the group shuffled around into clumps of three. It turned out that Roy's crew had been the one with an extra man anyway with Ty joining them. Three groups had an injured member that couldn't shoot and two a member that couldn't walk. Checking the overview and this information Elias selected roles before they made a second circuit of the ziggurat to deploy.

One crew at each entrance including the two with members that couldn't move easily. The three crews with walking wounded were sweeping patrols between the doors watching out across the Crust and to give support if and when needed. Of the three crews with no injuries two were on doors and one tagged to enter the ziggurat with him. All three crews had volunteered and it came down to which had the least minor injuries meaning Jim, Ken and Kyla were currently stood next to Elias waiting for the mission brief.

"The dome is the biggest challenge to getting in a Zig. Then the maze inside is the biggest challenge inside. We've been lucky that the Hive attacked us so hard outside so we weren't fighting through the dome. I can't imagine we will be lucky that the inside will be straightforward. Normally we would run multiple elite squads through several entrances at once. With a level one Zig we can clear with one team, it will just take longer. We're going to run a diamond formation. I'm on point. Jim, you're left shoulder. Ken, you're right. Kyla that leaves you on rearguard and support." The mix of anxiety and anticipation in their eyes was the only reply.

"Questions?" Elias asked, just to be sure.

"What should we expect in terms of defence?" Asked Kyla

"It's a young Hive so not much. The bigger Swarm we have seen out here are probably the highest level that are in this Zig. There are normally ten or so Swarm on the top level and then ten times that amount the level below, increasing exponentially as the size of the ziggurat does. So I anticipate about ten of the smaller Swarm and another eight or so of the larger ones." Elias said.

He neglected to explain that the true number depended on how long it had been since the ziggurat last expanded. Obviously it didn't jump from ten to a hundred strong overnight. So a level one ziggurat could have anywhere up to a thousand Swarm in reality. There were tells, ways of estimating much closer than this rough figure. The Crust had only been cleared to thirty metres meaning the Zig was not getting ready to expand. There were no growths out from the walls to suggest the structure was starting to be expanded. They had killed over a hundred Swarm already in the field. So unlikely they would face much on the inside. Unlikely but not impossible. Either way, they didn't need to know right now.