The image jiggled a little and came to rest on the smooth, faceless armor that was even disconcerting over a com.

“Admiral.”

“What is it, Ithan? I’m quite occupied at the moment—” Tanner began.

“The soldiers from the Odyssey have incurred injuries,” Milla interrupted him. “Their emergency craft has been redirected to rescue pilots lost in the outer system, so they have no local medical support at this instant. I’m told that they can, of course, redirect a shuttle to supply them with what they need, but it will take time…”

Tanner nodded. “One moment, Ithan.”

He stepped back while moving over to the control pit that handled ground operations. “Nero!”

“Yes, Rael?” the big man asked, stepping up.

“The soldiers from the ship have had casualties. They would appreciate medical aid,” Tanner told his counterpart. “Would security concerns permit redirecting them to one of your hospitals?”

“Of course,” Nero replied. “I’ll provide you with a list immediately and—”

“No need,” Tanner said. “It’s in Central. I’ll inform Ithan Chans of the locations.”

“Please do not neglect to inform me of which ones they are directed to,” Nero said. “I will ensure that they are received without undue trouble.”

Tanner nodded and headed back.

“Roger that, Miss Chans. Can you locate these sites on an aerial map?” Brinks asked, looking at Milla’s tense face over his HUD.

“I…I think so,” she said hesitantly. “Can you show me this map?”

“One second…” Brinks activated one of the command override circuits while snaking into her system using the boot camp back door. He called up the carnivore data and fed it to her via the HUD.

Milla watched, surprised at the image of the city floating in front of her, translucent but clear enough to see. Wherever she looked, a blue circle seemed to follow, and she quickly realized that it was somehow tracking her eyesight.

“Here…” she said, looking at one of the hospital sites. “This is one of the places.”

Brinks downloaded the information. “All right. Thank you, Miss Chans. I’m redirecting our wounded there now.”

“It is…nothing, Major,” she told him. “It’s the least we owe you.”

“Just get to your superiors, Miss Chans. We need to coordinate with your leadership if we want to finish this off,” Brinks told her, shutting down the HUD back door and returning her to normal operations.

Redirecting the wounded to the new site took only a couple commands. He summoned another chute for himself.

There was no way he was going to entrust his people to a place he hadn’t checked out first, if he had any choice in the matter.

“This cannot be good,” Lieutenant Savoy said after a long moment of silence while his team examined the interior of the wrecked pod.

“What is it, boss?” Burke asked, coming up behind him and stumbling to a halt as he saw what Savoy was looking at. “Oh shit.”