'Cormac.'

'Yes,' Cormac said to the unit in his pocket.

'We have an AGC coming in over the mountains,'

Aiden told him. 'I've only just picked it up. It's only two kilometres away.'

'Sergeant, you have it.'

'I do, sir. They're taking a juice harvest to Motford. The return signature I'm getting is of a transporter. Looks OK, sir.'

'Tell it to divert. If it flies over us, we hit it.'

Cormac began trotting back to the carrier. From his unit he heard a shout, then the sergeant telling someone to shut up. He opened the door of the carrier and stepped inside, with Mika close behind him. Stanton had his feet on the floor. He looked angry and he was pulling hard at his bonds.

'You must divert or you will be fired upon. This is my last warning,' the sergeant said.

'Fuck you, soldier boy. I got a harvest to get in. Some of us got to work for a living,' came the reply. Stanton fixed Cormac with a look. 'It's Svent,' he said.

'Oh God,' said the sergeant. 'Needles.'

'Take them down! Take them down now!' Cormac yelled.

Overhead the guns started up like an engine. Actinic light flashed through the windows.

'Mika, get out,' he said.

Mika immediately obeyed. The sergeant stood up from his console and looked round.

'You too,' said Cormac. As the sergeant passed him, Cormac ducked forwards and looked up at the gunner. The man's face was hidden behind a targeting mask as he operated the gun's controls. Hydraulics whined as the guns tracked across. Cormac moved to the control console and looked at the screen. Four traces, one moving slowly and erratically. The other three coming in fast. One of them disappeared while he watched. He gripped the edge of the console, his palms suddenly slick with sweat.

'Incoming,' he said. 'Anyone found not wearing a helmet will be on a charge.' He looked around and noted his own helmet on the bunk opposite Stanton.

'We're the target,' said Stanton.

'I know,' Cormac replied.

Only one of the fast traces remained. The slow and erratic trace had descended into the trees.

'Come on. Come on.'

It took Cormac a moment to realize when the last trace had disappeared. He looked around. Stanton met his look then sagged against his bonds.

'Right.' Cormac slapped the console, then headed quickly back. 'Good shooting,' he said to the soldier operating the gun. The man swung his mask away and gave him a sickly grin. Cormac grabbed up his helmet and exited the AGC. Even as he stepped out, there was a blinding flash above, and the turret guns on the carrier began to flash again like arc-welders. Cormac's visor took its time depolarizing.

'I can't see!' came someone's voice over his com.

Cormac heard the familiar vicious whir of a seeker bullet. Then a scream and a thump. He ran for the nearest foxhole and jumped in. Tarm glanced at him, then returned to the sight of his pulse-rifle.

'Where the hell did that come from? Aiden?'

There was firing in the trees. More smoke gusted. At the perimeter, one blue oak spurted flame. Then there was a concussion and a cloud of burning twigs and leaves flew into the air.

Aiden said, 'Someone got through. We missed him. He was moving very fast. I suspect it must have been the android.' Cormac was sure the Golem was as close as it could get to anger.

'Are either of you hit?'

'No. It just came in for the one shot.'

'Who was hit here?' Cormac asked, sticking his head above ground and looking around.

'Goff - took his head off… sir.'

Just then an amplified voice spoke from the trees. 'You next Cormac!'

'Find that!'

'We thought you might be a machine, but we were wrong. I'm glad, because at least you'll be able to feel it when I blow your guts out. We found Angelina…'

The voice died away with the flashing of a pulse-rifle. There was a delay, then Aiden said, 'Relay speaker. A drone must have dropped it.'

Cormac waited for what might come next. Nothing did. He gave it an hour, but nothing came up on scan and it seemed that no danger was close. He climbed from the foxhole speculating on Pelter's words. The man's anger was understandable, but Cormac had little sympathy for him. The Separatists on Cheyne III had been responsible for killing upwards of 500 civilians a year with bombs and other devices of mass destruction, and for carrying out hits on various officials and visiting dignitaries.

'Stay alert and ready. I want no one out of their holes unless absolutely necessary, and by necessary I mean pee on your boots if you have to,' he said, moving towards the forest. At the edge of the trees he crouched down by one of the autoguns. The device was tracking back and forth on its tripod. Through the trees he could see no movement. Aiden would pick up anything long before he saw it. Glancing back, he saw the sergeant and one of the men hauling a body-bag from one of the holes. He couldn't find the anger to berate them. He watched them lay the bag near the carrier. The sergeant went inside and the man returned to his hole. It seemed only a moment after that when the turret gun turned and fired a single shot into the treetops. From the white flash of impact burning leaves rained down.

'What was that?'

It was Aiden who replied. 'Another surveillance drone. I'm getting movement.'

Cormac moved back. There was a mosquito whining in the forest. The gun in front of him began stuttering. He ran for Goff's foxhole and dropped into it.

'Flares!'

The flares shot out while the turret guns on the carrier began flashing. Then he heard something else: a higher whine came from the treetops and the fire of the turret guns met it in the upper branches. Cormac saw something explode in a disc of fire. The severed half of a tree fell flaming.

'Shit! Needles again! Where the hell did he get this kind of armament?'

A silver torpedo shot from the burning treetops, turned in an erratic arc up into the sky, where the turret guns blew it to pieces. Another object shot through, and there was an explosion to Cormac's right. It happened too quickly for there to be a scream. All that was left was a burning foxhole and a few scattered pieces of gory body-armour. He looked up as the fourth missile came through and nosed overhead like a hunting pike. This one was larger. This was the one the others had made a way for. The carrier. Pulse hits crackled along the back of the missile and its flight became erratic. At the last it tumbled through the air and hit underneath the carrier. The carrier lifted on the blast, turned in flames and a cloud of falling earth, and crashed down on its roof.

'Oh fuck,' said Thorn.

Another explosion left another burning foxhole.

'Cento? Aiden?'

'I… tried,' came Cento's broken reply.

Two more detonations silenced the autoguns. In the trees were flashes of proton-gun fire. Something came running from the smoke and flying debris. For a moment Cormac thought it was Aiden, but even Aiden was not so tall. This figure was dressed in a long and tatty coat and had a wide-brimmed hat on its head. Mr Crane. Pulse fire hit the android from every side, but did not slow it. It came amongst them with its clothes on fire. Cormac saw it pause over a foxhole, its hand stab out. Then, all around the nearby foxholes, smoke started coiling into the air.

'Lasers!' someone yelled.

Cormac was about to ask where from, but the smoke revealed the red beams stabbing from beyond the carrier. He had miscalculated. Someone had come in at the back, using what litde cover there was there. Abruptly Thorn replied to that fire. A purple line cut from the slab and there was a white detonation beyond it. The firing immediately halted. Cormac was out of his hole, reaching for his shuriken, as the android turned to him. He saw a face of polished brass. He threw. The shuriken thrummed through the air with vicious confidence. A brass hand smashed it to the ground.