He knew what he had to do. Hit them hard, pin them, and fight it out to the end, before they could disperse to the hills and support the guerilla campaign he’d been struggling to stamp out. He didn’t have a solid estimate on their numbers, but he’d only been able to confirm four landers. He had no idea how many each one held, but his best guess was he still had the numerical advantage, despite the sixty troopers he’d lost over the past month.

He had no idea how long that superiority would last, or even what was happening in the space above Santis. He’d lost communication when the commander had moved Invictus toward planet five, getting in position to face a Confed battleship that had entered the system. But that had been days ago, and he’d had no contact since. He’d even dared to consider the inconceivable…that the great Commander Rigellus and the Alliance’s greatest and proudest flagship had been defeated. He found it hard to believe, but he’d spent hours staring at the com unit, waiting to hear something, anything. There had been nothing but silence.

It didn’t matter, at least not in terms of his duty. He was here to hold the planet, and that mission stood, whether Invictus was somewhere finishing off the enemy vessel, or if the space above Santis was filled with Confed battleships.

He turned to Delv Tinnius, who had been standing right behind him watching the Confed landers come in. “Rally the troopers, Optio. All of them.” He turned and looked back over the hill, toward where the enemy craft had landed. “We attack at once.”

*   *   *

“Let’s get to that ridge up there, fast!” Bryan Rogan was standing next to the assault shuttle, pointing toward a line of rocky heights about a kilometer to the north.

“You heard the Captain…move your asses.” Ernesto Billos was standing next to Rogan, sounding exactly like the Marines expected a veteran senior sergeant to sound.

“See to it, Sergeant.” Rogan had two lieutenants under him, but they had the same lack of hardcore experience under fire he did. Billos had been in battle, fought the Union FRs. He’d even been wounded twice. And one thing Rogan was sure about…his people were about to go into battle.

“Yes, sir.” Billos started moving toward the nearest group of Marines, but Rogan called him back.

“Sergeant…”

“Yes, Captain?”

“You saw the scanner data we collected. It’s inexact, to put it mildly, but it seems pretty likely we’re going to be outnumbered here. So, I want the men right at that ridge, and I want them to dig in. No complaints, no delays. We need the strongest position we can get. And I doubt we have much time. You agree with that, Sergeant?”

“Yes, sir. Completely.”

“Carry on.”