"The water factory is on the other side of this hatch here," Jansen heard the captain saying as he tapped a gloved finger on the computer's tiny screen. "Down this corridor and through the cross-"

Jansen's earphones erupted with a brain-piercing screech, like electronic fingernails on an electronic blackboard. Jagged bursts of noise blasted at him. He put his hands to his ears, banged them into his helmet instead. The noise was painful, cutting through his skull like a surgeon's bone saw.

He saw the other troopers clutching at their helmets, reeling, staggering under the agonizing assault of noise. Even the officers were flailing around helplessly.

His eyes streaming tears from the pain, Jansen fumbled for the control stud on his wrist and shut off his suit radio.

The noise cut off immediately. Blessed quiet.

"What is it?" Giap screamed. "What's going on?" The noise assaulted his brain like a thousand rock concerts, all out of tune. Like a million jet planes taking off. He couldn't hear anything else. He couldn't speak to anyone.

He couldn't think.

All around him, the troops of his third wave were pawing at their helmets, tottering across the dusty lith in obvious agony, some of them falling to their knees.

Giap did the only thing he could think of. He switched off his suit radio. The silence was like a soothing balm, even though his ears continued to ring.

"Turn off your radios!" he commanded, then felt immediately foolish. His own radio was off, his words never got farther than the padding inside his helmet.

But he saw, one by one, his troopers were stopping their gyrations, standing still. Giap knew he himself was panting from the unexpected onslaught. He suspected the other troopers were, too.

He waved the captain of the third wave over to him as he yanked a communications wire from the thigh pouch of his suit. Plugging the wire into his helmet port, he handed it to the captain, who connected it to his own helmet.

"Now we can talk without need of the radios," Giap said.

"Yes, sir," replied the captain. Giap could hear his breathing, still heavy.

"The rebels think they can stall our attack by jamming our suit radio frequencies," the colonel said, with a hint of contempt.

"Yes, sir," the captain said.

"They didn't think that we can communicate directly by wire, without using the radios."

"Yes, sir. But sir, if I may ask: We can speak to each other through the wire, but how will you communicate with the rest of the troops? Especially the first and second waves?"

Giap blinked behind his gold-tinted visor. The first and second waves were inside Moonbase, out of reach, even out of sight.

Jansen stood patiently as the sergeant went down the line, plugging his comm line into a trooper's helmet, speaking a few words, then unplugging and going to the next trooper.

When his turn came at last, the sergeant said gruffly, "No radio. Follow the original plan. Watch my hand signals."