That done, he leveled the weapon at the ground and triggered the firing stud.

The rifle whined in his hands, and its beam cut into the ground. Savoy held it steady for a couple seconds and began to play it along the ground in a straight line. Acrid smoke rose around him, but he ignored it as he watched the glowing of the heated ground through his thermal overlay.

He was finished with the test a few seconds later. Savoy shouldered the rifle and walked back to the group, even as he thumbed in an order for one of the chutes floating above them.

“Here.” He tossed the rifle back to the man he’d taken it from and nodded to Mehn, who had come to the front of the group.

Mehn reclaimed Savoy’s weapon from the startled man and glanced skyward as one of the CM packs descended. “You doing what I think you’re doing, L.T.?”

“Yup.”

“Cool.” Mehn held both rifles against his shoulders and leaned back against the building.

Savoy settled the pack over the still-glowing trench and walked over to it. The heat coming from the superheated ground was searing, but his suit could handle worse if it had to, so he ignored it and pulled a panel off the chute to access a couple of its controls. In a few seconds, he’d shunted the power circuits to the CM field and stepped back as he tapped in a command.

The resulting burst of energy slapped him like a fist, actually sliding him back along the ground a few inches, but he’d been expecting it. It also drove all the air molecules back for more than half a dozen meters, leaving the entire area engulfed in a miniature vacuum, physically pushing the molecules in place and holding them still. The ground at his feet cracked, though he could only feel it through the suit and not hear it as it cooled under the sudden chill. A short while after, the CM pack failed and the air rushed back with an impressive thunderclap.

Savoy checked the ground temperature and nodded. “All right, everyone, get into the trench and keep your heads down.”

Savoy and Mehn had finished herding the locals into the makeshift trench he’d cut when Burke made his appearance again.

“We ready?” Savoy asked, glancing up as the other man approached.

“On your order, boss,” Burke told him, checking the trench.

“This good enough?” Savoy asked.

Burke eyed the cut in the ground with a critical glance. It was deep, as such things went, over a meter down, in fact, and was coated with a glassy substance he’d never seen, but it looked like it would suffice to keep everyone clear of the worst of the blast.

He nodded. “It’ll do, boss.”

“Good,” Savoy said, making a notation on his battle log that he had cleared the four GBU-98s for immediate deployment. “You’re clear to launch.”

“Best get your head down,” Burke said.

“Everyone down!” Savoy ordered, reaching out and hauling a couple of the locals down as Mehn did the same.