“Fine. Get me an observer on the ground in each of the reported hotspots,” Tanner growled, slapping the plaque back into the tech’s chest. “I want a pair of eyes on the enemy and five pairs on the objects that dropped from the unidentified shuttle.”

“Yes, sir.”

Teams Two, Six, and Seven stood perched on the top of one of the scrapers of the immense population center and looked down at the scene below them.

It was awesome, in a bizarre sort of way.

The Drasin drones had landed on the rooftops and found that they had more than enough space to set up operations where they were.

This made sense, given that each rooftop was larger than a football field.

So they’d actually appropriated three of the huge sprawling buildings, and much to the annoyance or downright fear of the local military, they’d apparently decided to get ready and work their way down through the buildings.

The resulting firefight sprawled across the three buildings and through the intervening spaces while what the Terran teams took to be military vehicles engaged the drones as they hopped from place to place with apparent impunity.

The flashes of laser light and the odd sizzling sound of the invaders’ energy weapons were easily seen and heard by the nine members of the NACS Odyssey’s Special Operations teams.

Lt. Sean Bermont looked down at the scene from where he was kneeling by the edge of the rooftop. The combined computer network had tallied all the Tangos, and the numbers weren’t looking good.

“I read at least fifty of them,” Corporal Givens said from behind him.

Sean didn’t bother to remind the corporal that they had a shared data network, and whatever the corporal saw was what they all saw. It wouldn’t change the numbers, nor would it make the defenders’ actions any more effective.

Whatever the drones were packing in the way of armor, it was clearly effective against laser weapons.

Sean looked away from the battle zone, looking around the garden of skyscrapers. Finally, he tagged three buildings with his HUD, knowing that the tags would be transferred to the others.

“Rogers, you and Givens take the building to our right. Establish a presence and prepare to snipe at the enemy. Adams, Benoit, the middle. Jenkins, Carter, take the left,” Bermont said. “Samms and Curtis, you’re with me.”

A quick chorus of acknowledgment was heard, and Sean nodded once.

“Move out.”

The six men he’d assigned to sniper duty nodded once, then turned and took a running leap from the building, their assisted muscles driving them straight up over forty meters and out into the dizzying heights with deceptive ease.

Gunnery Sergeant Rogers and Corporal Givens landed easily on their assigned rooftop, legs flexing as the nano-fibers in their armor absorbed the impact of the three hundred–meter, pack-assisted jump, and hastily got to work.