Orugi reached the lip of the cliff and crawled to the base of the pillbox. It was only twenty feet, but Minka had never seen someone cross ground so fast while lying on his belly. He reached the bottom of the pillbox. He crouched and thrust the hose of his flamer into the mouth of the pillbox, then fired.

Smoke gouted from the loopholes. Asko was right behind Orugi. He lobbed two grenades in.

The central loophole was big enough for firing a heavy calibre gun. Just big enough for someone as small as Karni to slither through. Asko held her legs as he pushed her inside.

Moments later she had the back door open and the Cadians were in.

The ground floor was littered with the dead and the dying. They didn’t bother to dispatch them. The pillbox had two more levels. They sprinted up the press-steel staircase. There was vicious hand to hand fighting as they took the second level and then the third.

Within a minute the trickle of Cadians hurrying up that defile was turning into a steady flow. From the top of the pillbox they started firing down into the traitor trenches and foxholes.

The Jackals fell back in astonished panic. They did not understand how their position could be overrun so effectively.

The Cadians thrust onwards, cutting down astonished reserve troopers hurrying forward, or the supply troops, sweating and laden down with rolls of ammunition. Only Minka paused. ‘Viktor!’ she shouted. ‘Keep them moving!’

‘Where are you going?’ his expression said.

She pointed down. ‘I need to check on Dido!’

Minka slid down the scree slope. Dido was lying face down, one hand flung out, the other hidden beneath her. Her face was pressed into the sand.

It was the stillness that struck Minka. She looked like she was dead.

Minka shouted her lieutenant’s name, but there was no response. She only had a few moments to spare. She checked her body and quickly found a wound in the middle of Dido’s back, just below her flak armour. Her uniform was soaked with her blood. Minka ripped open her medi-pack in her thigh pocket and fumbled for the needle of stimms, then stuck it into Dido’s arm.

‘Talk to me,’ she said as she worked.

Dido did not speak. A hard round whistled overhead. Another hit the ground next to her. Black sand sprayed into her face. Minka blinked it away as she cut open the clothes and stuffed gauze into the wound, pressing it tight.

She turned her lieutenant over. Dido was still breathing. That blood clot had almost filled her left eye. She loosened Dido’s chin strap, fumbled for her tongue brace and fitted it into Dido’s mouth. ‘You’re going to be fine,’ she hissed.