It was dumb. Carlos and Marcus had fought in a dozen engagements. It was only a boat, and if the COGN could cope, then so could any Gear worth his salt. The troops sat huddled in the landing craft. Stroud was in Bernie Mataki’s, and Carlos could see her head moving as she talked to Mataki, one hand cupping her earpiece as if she was in discussion with CIC or someone. Then her head turned; she looked up toward the safety gantry that ran near the top of the bulkhead, and waved. As Carlos followed Stroud’s gaze, he saw she was waving to her daughter. Anya, gripping the metal rail with one hand, gave her mother a thumbs-up sign, and vanished again. “Poor kid,” Kennen said. Carlos glanced at his watch again. It was now, or it was abort, close to slack water when the high tide would allow them closer inshore for a few hours without the need to struggle across broad, exposed mudflats. “It’s a go,” Stroud said, standing up as best she could. “It’s a go, people.” The lights went out, the ramp began to drop, and the sea rushed in to flood the deck in a wall of wild noise. Bernie Mataki said something that got a laugh from the Islanders in her boat; whatever it was, Carlos couldn’t make out the words. The four landing craft slipped onto a bucking, angry sea in complete and terrifying darkness, heading for shore. Carlos looked back and the ship was in absolute blackness. When the craft climbed the peak of a wave, he couldn’t see lights on the shore. He thought that this was what space would be like, except without the icy spray that slapped him in the face and snatched his breath away. It was going to be a relief to stand on something solid and get shot at. Marcus was facing north. “Shit,” he said. “I think it’s kicked off.” Carlos craned his neck. Nothing, just unbroken sea; and then there was a sudden flash of orange light reflected in the clouds in the distance, and another. The diversionary attack on Berephus had started. He couldn’t hear anything. It was like distant lightning, seen but silent. Somewhere out there… “Go on, Dom,” he said to himself. “Yeah,” said Marcus. “Show ’em, Dom.”
SEA RAVEN SR-4467, INBOUND TO OSTRI COAST.