Hargraves and his people were here to finish what they’d been unable to do before they’d had to bug out. Destroy the tritium production and storage units, deprive the enemy of what they had almost certainly come for. The Marines had launched half a dozen raids over the last seven days, mostly smash and grab jobs to steal supplies and to keep the enemy on the defensive. There were close to three hundred enemy troopers on the ground now, at least by the best count Hargraves had managed to get, and Lieutenant Plunkett had agreed completely. If they didn’t keep the enemy off balance, the invaders’ patrols would find the hiding Marines and force a final battle at overwhelming odds. That would be the end.

It’s the end anyway…The fleet, the Marines, everything is deployed against the Union. We might hold out a few more days, a week…even two or three. But no one’s coming, not in that time. So, in the end all we can do is our duty. We may be lost…but I’ll be damned if we’re going to let these bastards have what they came for.

He took a step forward, stopping as he felt the rocks slip under his feet. The last thing he needed was to send a cascade of debris sliding noisily down the cliff…

Actually, the last thing you need is to trip and go down with them…

He moved slowly, cautiously, pushing the stones away from the precipice with his foot. He turned around again. “Loose rock up here,” he whispered. His tone was soft, seemingly gentle…but there were unspoken threats there his Marines would understand, images of what he would do to anyone who barged forward carelessly.

He could see the tritium facility ahead. The refinery that pulled the precious substance from Santis’s especially rich seawater glowed softly in the darkness. The facility was mostly automated, the small civilian population present mostly for maintenance and to handle any emergencies. As with Marines stationed on Santis, the civilian technicians were limited to relatively short terms of service exposed to the planet’s unhealthy radiation levels. Unlike the Marines, the civilian technicians could become rich enough to retire after a two-year stint, and that mean there were always plenty of volunteers.

This group is paying for it, though…

“All right…we’re here to take out the plant. We’d like to get the storage tanks too, but the first priority is the refinery.” He looked down the line, his eyes landing on one of the civilians. “Tomas, here, is the ranking tech. He says the best way to scrag the whole plant is to take out the reactor that powers it. And the only way to do that without causing a two-gigaton explosion or blasting ourselves with enough radiation to kill us fifty times over is to destroy the cooling system. Right?”