"Well, what can we do?" Doug asked.

Falcone wished he had an answer.

We should have known they'd split their forces, Doug raged at himself. I should've figured that the Peacekeepers wouldn't send their whole force through Wodjo. That was wishful thinking, nothing but wishful thinking.

"It's not so bad," Gordette said, pulling up a chair to sit beside him.

"Bad enough," said Doug.

"Their main force is coming across Wodjo Pass," Gordette said, pointing to the screen. "The second force is a lot smaller, looks like."

"But if they disable the antennas

"It'll take them an hour to get to the top of Yeager, at least."

"But still

Gordette said, "Count the missile launchers. That's their heavy artillery. Looks to me like almost all of 'em are coming through Wodjo."

Doug studied the screens for a few moments. "Maybe the secondary force is going to head for the mass driver?"

Gordette shrugged, then said, " Whoever's in charge of the Peacekeepers probably wants to keep the secondary force as a reserve."

Doug wished he could believe Gordette's assessment. He's just trying to cheer me up, Doug thought. Trying to lighten the load. It doesn't matter what the secondary force's mission is, once their main group gets in trouble in Wodjo Pass, they'll still have these other troops to attack us. With all their weapons.

Maybe Falcone was right and we ought to fry them as they come through Wodjo Pass. Get them before they knock out the antennas. Kill as many of them as we can while we've got the chance. They're here to kill us. They killed Lev, they tried to kill Mom. Why shouldn't we kill them?

The blinking message light on the console told him that people were waiting to talk with him. He pulled up the list on the comm screen. Wicksen, Edith, Kris Cardenas down in the infirmary, four others.

Edith. Doug recalled her urging against killing any of the Peacekeepers. She's right, he knew. Kill some of their troops and the whole world will turn against us. They'll keep sending armies here until they beat us. Faure won't stop until he wins, not if he has the world's public opinion behind him. And once we start sending coffins Earthside world public opinion will swing totally against us, no matter how much people may be rooting for us now.

Beat them without killing them. Even though they're trying to kill us.

He had put through a call to Savannah earlier, but it had not been answered so far. Is Mom all right? What happened down there? Who killed Lev? Is Mom safe?

They should've stayed here, Doug told himself. Then he realized the absurdity of it. Yes, stay here where all we have to worry about is being attacked by a small army of Peacekeeper troops.

Looking at his top left screen he saw that the first of the Peacekeeper vehicles was already entering Wodjohowitcz Pass. Doug glanced over at Falcone, staring grimly at the same view on his console.