"You figure we're dealing with Dogs?"
"They're the Arrian rocket specialists," Li-hon said. "At least they always have been. I'm beginning to think I don't know anything about the Arrians. When have they ever posted perimeter guards around an untouched warren?"
Pike bobbed his head. "This whole raid-the ambush, the perimeter guard-all out of character. The Warn captains have been so predictable. You don't think that maybe Mandarr-"
"I do-but I don't want to."
"I thought Intelligence put him in Dray Sector."
"So did I," said Li-hon. "They may have been wrong."
Pike made a clucking noise. "We'll protect your back. Go root 'em out. Patrol-three abreast, space to sight. I'll take the point." He turned and strode westward, in the direction of the explosion. Parcival and the two Regulars fanned out and followed.
"Who's Mandarr?" Bhodi asked as the remaining combatants closed in around Li-hon.
Li-hon frowned. "A new Arrian commander. The Warlord seems to have given him a freer hand than his other commanders. All this might be his doing." He waved the Regulars forward. "Let's move. We've got work to do. We'll use a pairs line, space fifty. You, you, right flank," he said pointing. "You two, left flank. Bhodi Li and I will take the center. Free-fire rules. And let's keep the chatter on the omrli to a minimum, all right? The enemy does like to listen in."
They picked their way toward the crater cautiously and in silence, guns drawn, eyes alert. As they paused in the cover of a half-buried boulder for the flank pairs to catch up, Li-hon watched Bhodi closely.
The youth seemed calm, but that was no reassurance. Better he should let himself feel his fear and use the adrenaline that came with it than to deny it and suppress it until it built to where it overwhelmed him.
"Sergeant." It was Pike on the whisper circuit.
"Here, Pike."
"It gets curiouser and curiouser. We've got us a Dog here, armed with a rocket launcher-"
"Just as we thought."
"— running from us."
"Repeat?"
"I said we've got a well-armed, uninjured Dog running from us. Who are these guys?"
"Are you sure he knows you're there?"
"I toasted his tail not two minutes ago. He knows."
The corners of Li-hon's mouth wrinkled with puzzlement. "Well-it makes sense, actually. The rocket launcher's a lousy weapon for one-on-one. And he's got no hands to pull it off and mount a phaser. He's got to go find a Warn."
"Sure, it makes sense," Pike retorted. "But when did a Dog ever do the sensible thing in combat? They just like to rip and burn."
"What do you think, then?"
"I think he's trying to draw us away from something."
"What kind of something?"
"Don't know. Permission to let him go and look around?"
"I don't want to lose track of the Dog," Li-hon said. "Send Mlas to shadow him. Then give a quick look-see. But remember, there's probably more than one sentry out there, and they'll be coming your way."
"Let 'em come," Pike said. "It'll be a reassuring sight. Dogs running from a fight-this is getting too weird."
The lip of the crater was in sight when the assault force got the bad news from Zephyr.
"We're going to have company up here," Captain Yier announced. "An Arr ship just popped on the scopes. She must have been orbiting Neph in lights-out mode, or maybe sitting on the surface. Anyway, she's got it lit up now. You've got about twenty minutes before she gets within transporter range, maybe less."
"I thought-" Bhodi began.
"Later," Li-hon said sharply. "Captain Yier, we've got to have more time. You'll have to engage and try to hold her off."
"I don't think she's going to want to play," Yier said. "But I'll get you what I can."
Li-hon turned to Bhodi. "Now, what?"
"Nothing. It's just that I thought the transporter could throw you all the way across a stellar system."
"The Arrian transporter is different than ours," Li-hon said, turning his attention back to the crater ahead. "Shorter range, but one big advantage: They can grab their people back from the surface without a focus grid at this end."
"Not from inside the warren?"
"No. Not through all that dirt and rock."
"So in the middle of fighting our way in, we might find them trying to fight their way out. And then they could just vanish on us?"
"Yep," Li-hon said grimly. "And if it happens, you start running the other way-because you don't want to be in the neighborhood when an Arrian crystal is set off. B'ere'a, Kree-tih, are you set?"
The answers came back from both flanks in the affirmative.
Li-hon looked to Bhodi. "Then let's go."
They reached the rim of the crater without incident.
When they looked down over the edge, the crater was deserted. There was no doubt of that, since there was no place in the great earthen bowl to hide.
Bhodi thought briefly that he would hate to come under fire on the crater floor, then pushed the thought away as he focused on the three mounds and their black maws. Which one? he wondered. A lady and two tigers. Which one's the lady?
With silent hand signals, Li-hon called one Regular from each flank up to the rim of the crater. Quietly and efficiently, they took up positions 180 degrees apart and 90 degrees from where Li-hon and Bhodi lay-perfect for covering fire.
Digging the pockets of his belt, Li-hon came up with a pair of handball-sized metal spheres. "You take the entry on the near left," Li-hon said, handing one of the squealers to Bhodi. Invaluable for warren-cracking, the squealers simulated the sounds of a Guardian moving in one of the passageways, triggering some types of booby traps and occasionally drawing an incautious Warri out of hiding. "Remember, just roll it down the chute."
"Got it," Bhodi said. He checked the readouts of his Allison one last time, then took a deep breath and went over the top.
The crater was about three meters deep, and the wall was steep and crumbly. Bhodi dropped to the crater floor in a controlled slide, his eyes scanning the shadowed entrances. There was no movement, no phasers winking in his direction.
Bhodi started across the crater floor in a crouch. From behind came the sounds of Li-hon following him down the slope. Bhodi was aware of Li-hon, of the Regulars perched on the rim, ready to burn any Arrian who suddenly popped up from a warren entrance-but suddenly the fear sweat was running down the middle of his back.
Suddenly he could not take one more step, could not face what was waiting down under the surface of this dead world. He wanted to throw the Allison as far away as he could and cry, "Don't kill me, I don't belong here, this isn't my fight!"
Then someone screamed in pain, and for a confused moment Bhodi thought it was him. A moment later he realized that the sound had come over the omni circuit. He twisted around to face the way he had come, looking for explanations. He saw only Li-hon, equally puzzled.
"Something got B'ere'a," Kree-tih shouted. "On the west rim-"
Li-hon looked up and started to swing his pulse cannon in that direction. "Run, Bhodi!" he cried.
But Bhodi froze, horrified, as he watched Li-hon suddenly savaged by a flurry of phaser blasts. The first turned the fingers of Li-hon's right hand, wrapped around the forward grip of the cannon, into smoking stubs too short to maintain their hold. As the weapon fell from his shoulder to the crater floor, another hit seared the right side of Li-hon face, the skin bubbling up into blisterlike cysts.
At last Li-hon started to move, turning away and unleashing a guttural bellow that had to mean an agony Bhodi could only imagine. The movement made a shot aimed at Li-hon's chest pod miss and burn deep into his side instead. Li-hon took one step, wobbled, and went down. And still the enemy kept firing, tracing a line from the base of Li-hon's tail up across his shoulders.