<span data-ve-clipboard-key="0.6341232589826112-0"></span><i>Landfleet
Sargent Efram evaluated his squad's position and swore in Yazirian.
They were pinned down and cut off from the rest of the 52nd PA Company
by 50 kilometers of rugged terrain and what seemed like half the Sathar
invasion force. As he crouched behind a fortuitously-placed boulder, he
took a moment to check his status indicators, projected on his heads-up
display.</i> <p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[78,253,0,0]}"><i>TacNet
was down, switched off so that the worms couldn't home in on their IFF
pings. Therefore he was dependent on sight alone to show him where his
troopers were. Like him, they were hunkered down behind whatever cover
they could find, so he turned to checking his consumables.</i> </p><p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[78,253,0,0]}"><i>Life
Support looked ok, he still had 10 hours of reserve atmosphere and Doc
had estimated that the new gas the worms were using would fully
dissipate within the next two. Briefly he debated going back to outside
air, but decided against it. They still didn't know if the filters could
handle the new toxin.</i> </p><p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[78,253,0,0]}"><i>Ammunition
was an issue. Most of his expendable rounds were long since fired. He
had two grenades left in the launcher mounted over his left shoulder.
The right one had been torn off in an earlier skirmish.</i> </p><p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[78,253,0,0]}"><i>Efram brought up his Power indicators and noted how low they were. Stang it, he </i>told<i> Supply that they needed pellet replacements for their RTGs a month ago but they'd put him off </i>again...<i>Well, no help for it. They'd have to make due...</i> </p><p data-parsoid="{"dsr":[78,253,0,0]}"><i>He caught movement in his peripheral vision.</i> <i>Here
they come again, he thought. He seriously doubted there was any way
they could hold the worms off this time. He made a grim decision and
activated his external audio speakers as he stood. Concealment didn't
matter any more. He shouted to his squad </i>"All right you apes...do you want to live forever?!?" </p>
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