"Fuck!" the NCO shouted, in shock at seeing one of his troops killed not two feet in front of him. Hann's helmet had contained much of the damage, but there was no saving the Marine. Enders unsafed his weapon and pushed farther back from the edge of the walkway, moving to his right in case the bastards had a grenade launcher down there.

"This is Echo Two-Two…we are taking fire. One casualty," he said into the radio as he heard some coarse shouts from below and a few more stray shots striking the walkway and ceiling where he'd just been.

"Understood, Two-Two," Pritchett said. "Withdraw and await support."

"Bring him down! We need … radio … alive!"

The shout came up through the open hatchway he and Hann had accessed the walkway from. Whoever was taking shots at them had sent someone up the ladderwell. Enders got up to move down the walkway to the next access hatch, but as he did, he saw the shattered remains of Corporal Hann lying there. The icy fear he'd been feeling since he realized they were under attack thawed, replaced by anger at what had been done to one of his Marines.

Before he consciously thought about what he was doing, he moved carefully back towards Hann's body, crouching to keep his head from being visible to anybody on the ground below. Enders crouched near the open hatchway, his heart pounding as he heard what sounded like at least four people racing up the steep, narrow stairs to come collect him. He had no intention of letting them.

He pulled two grenades off his harness, one concussion, the other frag, and set three second delays in each before pulling the pins. He double squeezed the handle triggers to activate them both. Once they left his hand and the triggers released, the detonation timers would start, or he could double squeeze them again and deactivate the device.

"Quickly!" the quiet word drifted up from the ladderwell. Enders peeked over the edge and saw moving shadows. He kissed each of the grenades before tossing the concussion down the well, then the frag a second later. He slammed and dogged the hatch closed, scooping up Hann's tactical radio and shuffling away as quickly as he could.

Whump!

The muffled blast of his grenades going off shook the catwalk and startled yells sounded as a blast of hot air and debris erupted from the open hatchway at ground level. There was some coughing and cursing as the remaining people in the arboretum shouted in confusion, a few blindly firing up at where they thought Enders was still sitting. He took the opportunity to move up to the rail and look down, seeing four of the enemy were staring up at where he had been.

Not wanting to waste the initiative he'd gained, he leaned over the rail and shouldered his carbine. The optic reticle identified the targets and automatically ranged his weapon, the crosshairs flashing green once to let him know he was optimized for the shot. He quickly squeezed off two rounds, dropping the first target, and catching the next with a gut shot before they fell behind one of the equipment crates, screaming.