The boy opened his eyes, startled by the gentle prod.

"Sorry for the rude awakening, boy," Tora said gently, "but if I let you sleep you'll miss all the fun. I have a few questions ..."

Still groggy after only two hours of sleep, the youth blinked and rubbed his eyes vigorously.

"Understood, sir. Ask away."

Consulting the list they had compiled as the boy slept, he began to ask the questions, writing brief annotations of the answers as he did so.

What had the Unmil pilot been wearing? What language had he spoken? Had he managed to observe the interior of the Unmil Suit's interface cavity? Had there been a hydraulic interface of some kind? What weapons had it used? What were those weapons' natures, rate-of-fire and destructive capabilities? How fast could the Suits run and for how long? Was there some insight as to their intentions? Had anything he or others had done managed to damage the Unmil's armor?

The boy answered all questions more articulately and in greater detail than Tora would have expected, his brow furrowing occasionally as he thought hard or tried to remember some detail of the preceding days. The information he provided was more much detailed than Ian's, and the colonel was greatly surprised by the fact that the boy had actively sought his enemy out and engaged him while armed with what was clearly outdated weaponry. Unlike with Ian, there were no soft whispers in his mind as he wondered at the speaker's motivations, courage or honesty. The Miura boy was easy to read, and he was possessed of a natural aggressiveness that the colonel greatly admired. The cadet probably hadn't yet realized how unusual his behavior had been, nor how risky. That gave him a thought.

"Grew up on a farm, did we?" he asked.

The boy's eyes widened slightly and his head turned to the side like a curious hound, the question catching him unawares. Tora grinned and tried hard not to laugh.

"Y-yes, sir."

"Ahuh, pretty obvious."

"Sir, may I ask a question?"

"Go ahead. After the number I've asked you deserve one yourself."

"Why hasn't Sueli been evacuated yet?"

"Sorry about that, but we had to divert that copter to evacuate comrades from the Dogspine. With the wind rising and the enemy between us and them, our window of opportunity is closing. All non-essential personnel will be evacuated from here over the next two hours and she'll be among the first to leave."

"What happens after those two hours?"

"You know what will happen."

The boy's expression first became pained and then thoughtful.

"I saw those Hammerheads beyond on a dirt road. Is MEWAC here? I need to report to them."

"Those are EWAC Suits. MEWAC's in bits and pieces out on Lograin's airfield, awaiting evac to Leiben. You should be with them, and since you've already answered me as best you could, you soon will be. Especially since you have a sliver of poison on its way there. There's something not quite right with that boy, is there?"

"Sir, that's one way to put it. His mind's a mystery to me, but he is dangerous. That much I know for sure. EWAC, right? Is there any chance they'd loan me a Suit?"

The colonel smiled.

"Loan an injured cadet from another outfit an operational Suit? I think not."

"Pity. I think I know how to kill it."

The colonel's eyebrows began to rise at the bold statement.

"Care to explain how?"

"Something the Suit's doing is causing our weapons to fail, making them not work the way they were made to. But a few days ago I saw a hammerhead drop a grenade as it retreated, and it detonated below the Unmil and sent it flying. That seemed to shake it up a bit. So I thought; if a small, well-placed grenade can do that, just imagine –"

"– what a bigger bomb can do, right?" the colonel finished for him. "A sort of mega-mine, am I right?" he added.

"Not quite, sir. Mines can certainly do some damage but their effectiveness depends on the enemy getting close enough. Maybe it will, or maybe it will find some other way around. What I think is, all Lasers are direct line-of-sight weapons, right? But grenades are by their nature indirect fire weapons. And this terrain must have some sweet spots where units may hide behind cover and do some serious throwing. So I was thinking that satchel charges could be improvised and thrown –"

"...and shot down by those Lasers' automatic firing capability. That –"

"No. There is no automatic fire capability if the Suit's on its back. I discovered that when I fired on Kaiser's Suit as it was lying on the ground that time. My missiles weren't powerful enough to get the job done, but heavy satchel charges thrown at it while it's incapacitated will get through and do serious damage, I think. Those mines would be useful if they could be remote-detonated, though. Then it doesn't have to step on them; the shock-wave alone would be enough to make the Suit hit the deck, and then our Suits could finish up."

The missing element to Dennis' plan suddenly slid into place. They had only gotten as far as the remote-detonated minefield that EWAC was emplacing over the base's south-eastern perimeter. Until then he had been betting on the possibility that the Suit would happen to wander close enough to one to get the grand-prize, but here was a chance to elevate the kill probability to something respectable. Dennis unglued his back from the prefabricated wall and peered at them with a smile.

"Looks like we're gonna need to do a little more of that combined-arms crap," he rasped.

The colonel turned to the boy.

"Incidentally, how's your throwing arm?" he asked.

"I'm a leftie, sir. It's just fine," the boy replied, death in his eyes.

The colonel liked what he saw there.

*****

Colonel Brunn Pienaar grinned from ear to ear as he listened, nodding curtly every time a particular point was made. The commander of EWAC appeared to be anything but an engineer, and Tora liked that about him. He was also game for the audacious plan.

"That sounds awesome! You know, every time EWAC goes on campaign you people never seem to know what to do with us. Usually you guys think we're here to dig you a bunch of trenches, right? But we are a combat arms by our own right; we even fight as infantry or armor if there's no alternative. And now there is no alternative."

"What about the cadet's request?"

"We can do that. Two of our Suits are on their asses; their drivers popped their fuses and have already been evacced to Lograin. He can take one, and if you have someone else trained to drive a Suit, he can take the other."

Tora knew of one other, and made a mental note to ask for her assistance. Nodding to Pienaar, he bid his counterpart a momentary farewell and set off with his vice-commander in tow. Making a decision, he turned to Dale.

"Do you know a young woman by the name of Hannah Arakaki?"

The lieutenant-colonel appeared surprised by the question.

"Indeed I do."

"And do you know where she is?"

"Well, I presume she's still grinning like an idiot at her father's manse. At least, that's what she was doing the last time we met."

The colonel pursed his lips.

"Well, that's not quite up-to-date ..." he remarked, and then he explained.

"Oh lord ..." Arakaki exhaled, struck mute for a moment. His face then began to harden.

"Where is she?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"Before I answer, I'd like to make something clear. She may be your niece or thereabouts, but she's MEWAC personnel first in my ledger. And as you may already have noticed, I wasn't born with a silver spoon stuck up my ass, so I don't care much about aristocrats' special dealings with one another. If I need to use her, I won't hesitate to give the order. And if you resist me on this I'll have you in cuffs and out of the way, seeing as up to now you've been about as much use to me as a well-trained monkey. And you won't be evacced either; you'll sit in a room until we're either victorious or smears on the ground. Understood?"

"Understood," he replied, his cold eyes saying, however, that he didn't understand at all.

The colonel sighed.

"She's in medical bay, sleeping in one of the cots. Wake her gently, alright? She's had a bad week."

But the lieutenant-colonel was already on his way.

It was difficult, sometimes, deciding on the right thing to do. He could have kept his mouth shut about the cadet, but his old habit of keeping his closest subordinates in the loop had taken over, and suddenly there was one more variable to consider.

Sighing at his own foolishness, he gave Dennis his orders and set off to medical bay again.

His fears were laid to rest as soon as medical came into view. Tora crossed paths with Dale as the lieutenant-colonel marched in the opposite direction, alone and with a redness in his cheeks that the crimson sun could not entirely explain. He didn't raise his eyes, preferring instead to curse the cadet he'd just left in a way that no family-member rightly should.

Tora smiled and entered the building.

He found the girl sitting stiffly on the cot she had been sleeping in, her arms just as crossed as her legs were. She turned her eyes towards him, and he momentarily saw her wrath there.

What in the hell are they feeding cadets these days? he wondered as he put on an apologetic smile.

"My apologies, Sergeant-cadet, but I wasn't aware of the family feud until I had spoken the words. Although I've come to find this current generation of soldiers tends to resolve their family disputes by running off to the army."

"With due respect, Colonel, I didn't run off," she objected. "I am here with my father's blessing. As for the rest of the family, they were not a factor in this decision, nor will they ever be despite their foolish ideas."

"Sorry, but I am not here to meddle in your personal affairs. What I am doing here is offering you and Sergeant-cadet Miura the chance to participate in an act of divine vengeance. Are you game?" he asked with a wolfish grin.

The cadet slowly unthawed, and she uncrossed her arms as the full weight of the proposal came to her attention.

"We ... we can kill it?" she asked uncertainly, her blue eyes darting towards the compartment door beyond which Toni rested.

"You can try. There are two Hammerhead Suits that EWAC will be making available for you, although the only weapons you'll be using are still being put together by their personnel. They have six drivers who have never dealt with this thing before, so I have some expectations from your side. Get it?"

"Got it, sir," she replied, licking her lips.

"You are to get off your rears and meet up with the EWAC section right now. You can find them two hundred meters further up the road. They're expecting you, so don't waste their time."

He turned to leave and then changed his mind. Turning once more to the cadet he gave a parting shot.

"And tell that Miura something for me. His situation with the Templeton boy will be infinitely improved if he manages to kill the Unmil. That bakemono's destruction could make the difference between a medal and a firing squad. Understood?"

"Y-yes, sir."

"Good ..." he smiled his thanks and set off once more, mentally thanking Dale for being an idiot.

There was nothing more dangerous than a highly motivated soldier, and he felt he now had two instead of just one.

The next jaunt in his preparations took him to the war-materials deposit on the copterpad's opposite side, where EWAC personnel worked on the improvised weapons to be used in the coming engagement. The deposit was made up of three separate compartments that curved around a common area. The first was a small room dedicated to assorted detonators and fusing systems for EWAC personnel, whilst a larger had been dedicated to small and medium caliber ammunition for the ROWAC force, along with hand-grenades and anti-armor munitions. The largest compartment, however, housed the astonishing consignment of explosives that had been dedicated to the construction of the path and the setting of booby-traps. Several tables positioned at the center of the common area were surrounded by combat engineers, and soldiers kept entering and leaving the largest compartment, carrying heavy brown sacks over their shoulders. Those sacks were being fitted into large backpacks while the remaining personnel installed the fusing systems.

A captain who was overseeing the operation approached him and saluted, proving to be yet another EWAC captain whom Tora wasn't familiar with.

"Sir, Captain Van Dyke, Sir. I command the Fortification Section, sir."

"FORTSEC, right. That's the name of your Hammerhead section, isn't it?"

"Yessir. I'm overseeing the preparation of the charges, sir."

"Drop the sirs, alright Captain? You don't want you to tire yourself out before the fighting begins. But I would like you to give me an idea of how these charges work, if you don't mind."

Momentarily miffed at the colonel's comment, the captain nevertheless showed the frog-swallowing talent inherent to an officer and guided the colonel to the nearest table.

"DIMEs. Short for Dense Inert Metal Explosives. We're taking sacks filled with a granular explosive charge of octogen and fitting them into these travel packs –"

"Who did the travel packs originally belong to?" the colonel interrupted, throwing the captain off his explanation.

"Uh, we had to commandeer them from all EWAC personnel, sir," he replied before grimacing at having once again sirred his superior.

Some men simply failed to realize how much they entertained others with their antics. The colonel kept a serious face and shook his head in concern.

"That must have caused some serious problems, didn't it, Captain?"

"Oh yes, it did," the captain replied with a pained expression. "Even had some trouble convincing a few of the more senior corporals to hand them over."

"Horrible indeed. And what did you do with all their personal effects?"

"Well, sir. Um, we sort of overturned the packs onto a flatbed and sealed it."

"Ahuh. I wouldn't want to be nearby when they try and sort out what belongs to whom afterwards. What do you think?"

The captain's face was dead-serious.

"Neither would I. There'll be blood for sure."

Try as he might, the colonel was unable to keep the smile off his face. Clapping the soldier on his shoulder, he continued with the matter at hand.

"Alright then, what's a DIME?"

"They're explosive charges filled with very fine tungsten powder. Doing that gives the charge less brisance but more pushing power per square-centimeter of surface area. Also good for seriously damaging any ocular devices within its range."

"Are all the charges made that way?"

"No, sir. We're rigging about half of the packs with DIMEs and lacing a blue cord to the fusing system to distinguish them from the more conventional charges."

"Conventional as in conventional explosives?"

"Yessir. The remainder have only octogen as its main charge. Their cord is red, sir."

"Where'd you get the cords?"

"They're actually armbands, our boys like to carry them to recognize each other in combat. Blue is for the Mobility Company and red for the Counter-mobility boys."

"Understood. Just give me a moment to observe," he finally told the captain.

After a few minutes, the colonel began to understand the methodology. The travel packs were fitted with an eleven kilo-mass sack of explosives at its base. A hand-grenade, which a separate team had modified by cutting away its handling lever, was then placed upon the sack and a length of nanowire snapped onto its grenade-pin. The nanowire was then threaded through two more sacks as they were also fitted into the pack, before finally being clipped to an armband of the appropriate color on the opposite side. The pack's cover was then closed and carefully sealed with duct-tape, with the armband sticking out of the orifice meant for its water tube. The end result was an explosive device of about 34 kilo-mass for a red-cord and 56 kilo-mass for a blue-cord.

"You think the travel packs will stand up to a Suit's handling?"

"Easily, Colonel. They're tough, they were designed to provide some protection against flack. That's why we wanted them so bad," the captain replied.

And the fusing system is reliable?"

"We tested it with a partially-deactivated grenade and sacks of soil. We finally got a fuse to pop after a good yank. The Suits are easily strong enough to pull the grenade-pin right out of the pack, but the damage to the sacks isn't going to affect their ability to detonate. The tests also made us realize the only way to get it to pull reliably was to tighten the sacks inside their pack as much as possible. That way the grenade's length is perpendicular to the pull direction, since it's being pressed between the sacks. Hence the duct-tape, sir."

"Nice. How many charges?"

"Depends, sir. Depends on when the Unmil arrives, mostly. The completed charges are soon going to be stacked outside along the deposit's wall. We expect at least fifty within the next hour."

"If that doesn't get the job done, nothing will ..." the colonel thought aloud.

The captain remained quiet for a moment, before the need to speak overcame him.

"Sir, what are the chances of these charges being effective against the Unmil?"

"Sincerely? I'm a little upset that our travel packs aren't a bit more spacious."

The captain looked discouraged. Sighing, Tora decided to throw him a bone.

"Listen, Captain. Two MEWAC cadets who survived the debacle at the mines are on their way to your drivers. They've both had personal experience regarding what's coming our way, and if you want more information regarding your enemy, then Miura's the one to talk to. You're also going to be their commanding officer for the coming engagement. They volunteered to drive your two unoccupied Suits. Understood?"

"Understood, sir," the captain quietly answered.

Van Dyke kept the colonel company for the following five minutes as they inspected the weapons' assembly until, hurriedly excusing himself, the captain left for the dirt road. The colonel had a suspicion the officer was on a mission to find the cadets.

Abandoning the deposit, the old colonel made his way back to his bunker, where he found a sulking Dale staring at a map.

"I don't want to talk about it," the lieutenant-colonel said without raising his head.

"Good. I don't want to hear about it," the colonel answered cheerfully.

"Your major's back from the frontline. He decided to pull your entire complement of praetorians and pile them on the northern and southern shoulders of the Dogspine."

"Good. I told him to."

"He also decided to remark the map using your user-profile."

"Good. I told him to."

"You might have been kind enough to tell me to do that!" he suddenly barked.

"And I would have," Tora calmly replied, "had you not shown greater interest in arguing with your niece. Do you understand the reason for my orders?"

Dale rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Yes. I guess you pulled the bots so they'd be out of FORTSEC's way, but left them in a position where they can still harass the Unmil to their hearts' desire."