With the binoculars, I looked down at the other Whale that was still unloading. Some cargo was coming down the rear ramp, from the number of troops climbing down the stairways on the ship's side and lined up on the tarmac, this Whale had mostly carried troops. A Whale, according to the info provided by the Kristang, could carry up to 600 passengers. Judging by the gear the troops on the tarmac were loaded down with, I figured a troop-carrier Whale couldn't hold the maximum number of people.

The Vultures above the jungle beyond the airfield were still firing an occasional missile at whoever was down there. If we could shoot down even one dropship from our position, the Ruhar would very likely halt operations at the airfield until they were confident they'd rooted out all human resistance in the area. That would delay their occupation schedule for the Launcher significantly. Maybe even force them to divert dropships and troops from other areas, and that would give our forces elsewhere on Paradise a break. Even if the Kristang didn't, or couldn't, come back to Paradise, surely they would eventually hear of UNEF's firm stand at the Launcher, and boosting the Kristang's opinion of humanity's combat usefulness had to help the people back home. Which was the whole point of the UN Expeditionary Force. Our forces had no possibility of actually defending Earth from the Ruhar, we needed the Kristang to do that for us. UNEF had gone to the stars in order to give the Kristang a reason to care whether Earth was conquered by the Ruhar or not. In a way, UNEF's mission was to SAVE THE WORLD.

Those all caps were intentional, by the way, it looks more dramatic that way. When you're facing the strong possibility of being trapped, forever, on an alien planet controlled by the enemy, having a dramatic rationale for your mission makes it feel better.

I handed the binoculars back to Pope. "Pope, you, and, uh, Wayne, can you get across the road and under those trees there? I need a spotter to see what's coming over the ridge behind us. Hold up fingers to give us a count with your right hand, with your left hand, uh, a fist means a Whale, holding your palm open face down is a Dodo, and palm open face up is a Vulture, got it?" I didn't want to waste Zingers on a Vulture, we needed to make a bigger impact than shooting down a two-seater gunship.

Pope looked right and left. "Yeah, we'll go down the road under tree cover on this side to where those trees are overhanging the road, cross there, and make our way back."