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    Orders to Leave
    Orders to Leave
    Orders to Leave
    Ebook432 pages6 hours

    Orders to Leave

    By Mike Adams

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    About this ebook

    The Rangers have reinforcements coming but so do the aliens

    Things are about to get pretty crowded in the residence that belonged to Rick Cassidy but is now hosting all of the female Rangers officers in New Hope Town.

    The hospitals in the remaining settlements have been overwhelmed with the massive casualties from the Battle of Winter Haven but new most of them may be able to go home

    A former SWAT sniper, Bridget O’Brien may be a good candidate to join the Brain Trust

    If you liked the first books of the Fierce Girls At War series you will love Orders to Leave, the 14th installment of the saga of the ‘fierce girls’ war against the aliens. Click the BUY NOW button at the top and continue your journey now.

    “Ruby McCarthy is such an attention seeker! First she gets herself rescued by Commander Cassidy just seconds before we crashed into a mountain and then she demands her rifle back from this alien Raagaa who grabbed it from her – she shot him in the face and took it back- and then while I dive out of the way she faces off with a demon wolf and comes out asking for a souvenir tooth. Come on, Rube! You’re 15 now! Grow up!”
    -Savannah Jbouri, age 17, squad 8, Jacks Company, US

    “Dios mio! I hurt everywhere! I feel like I was run over by a truck but it was really just a 1⁄2 ton demon wolf that wanted to eat me.”
    -Venus Bennett, age 19, squad 6 leader, Jacks Company, Chile

    The colony ship Marco Polo is almost at the colony with 2,200 more Rangers but alien reinforcements are almost there too. In their mountain valley Jacks Company knows that packs of demon wolves will be coming soon and they’ll have no choice but to fight those monsters.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMike Adams
    Release dateJul 16, 2018
    ISBN9780463325797
    Orders to Leave
    Author

    Mike Adams

    Born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island, NY. Mike has a BS in Business Admin from Wagner College and an MBA from SDSU. A retired US Navy Lieutenant Commander, Supply Corps (Logistics), a former small business owner, and part-time substitute teacher. he's visited 6 continents and 36 countries, speak Spanish, some German, a little Italian and a little less French. He currently lives in Chula Vista, CA with his wife Chris.

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      Book preview

      Orders to Leave - Mike Adams

      Orders to Leave

      Book 14 of the Fierce Girls at War Series

      Mike Adams

      Copyright 2019 by Mike Adams

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever including Internet usage, without written permission of the author.

      This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, or events used in this book are the product of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, alive or deceased, events or locales is completely coincidental.

      E-book formatting by Maureen Cutajar

      www.gopublished.com

      Other Books by Mike Adams

      Fierce Girls at War series

      Book 1: Fierce Girls

      Book 2: Threat on the Horizon

      Book 3: Opening Shots

      Book 4: First Contact

      Book 5: Bad Day On The River

      Book 6: The Fight For The Pass

      Book 7: Deluge

      Book 8: Enemy Found

      Book 9: Recovery Mission

      Book 10: Jacks Company

      Book 11: Death By Water, Death By Fire

      Book 12: The Raid On Southport

      Book 13: Hitting Back

      Book 14: Orders to Leave

      Contents

      Maps

      Chapter 1: Lieutenant Bridget O’Brien

      Chapter 2: Gould Breaks the News

      Chapter 3: A Change in the Weather

      Chapter 4: Back to Winter Haven

      Chapter 5: More Bombs and Mines

      Chapter 6: Frozen River

      Chapter 7: Wolf Pack Coming

      Chapter 8: Pack Unit Commanders

      Chapter 9: Snow Drifts

      Chapter 10: Explosive Bolts

      Chapter 11: First Wolf Attack

      Chapter 12: Second Round

      Chapter 13: Something Completely Unexpected

      Chapter 14: Preparations for Arrival

      Chapter 15: Planning Ahead

      Chapter 16: A Squad Challenge

      Chapter 17: And the Winner is…

      Chapter 18: A Better Solution

      Chapter 19: The Wolves Return

      Chapter 20: The Stay Behinds

      Chapter 21: Miltcar Arrives

      Chapter 22: Give Credit Where Credit is Due

      Chapter 23: Who Gets to Go Home?

      Chapter 24: Simplifying the Problem

      Chapter 25: On Approach

      Chapter 26: Marco Polo Arrives

      Chapter 27: Greetings

      Chapter 28: The Cargo Barges

      Chapter 29: Ciara Hears the News

      Chapter 30: Greeting Party

      Chapter 31: Bridget

      Chapter 32: At the Residence

      Chapter 33: House Rules

      Chapter 34: Some Questions Answered

      Chapter 35: Bad News Delivered

      Chapter 36: Lancôme

      Chapter 37: Post-Arrival Conference

      Chapter 38: New Assignments

      Chapter 39: Three Issues

      Chapter 40: The Australia Gets a Troubling Message

      Chapter 41: Yes, Horrible About Sums it Up

      Chapter 42: Now Spill!

      Chapter 43: A Plan for Castillo

      Chapter 44: Operational Planning

      Chapter 45: Orders to Leave

      Chapter 46: They’d Have Made Exceptional Criminal Masterminds

      Chapter 47: At Russo’s

      Chapter 48: Varakova

      Chapter 49: Adventureland

      Chapter 50: Snow Panthers

      Chapter 51: Volunteer to Stay

      Chapter 52: Asia Preps for Jump

      Chapter 53: Marco Polo Departs

      Chapter 54: News From the Colony

      Chapter 55: Ryan’s Island

      Chapter 56: Airborne Landing

      Chapter 57: A Blow to the Stomach

      Chapter 1

      Lieutenant Bridget O’Brien

      December 31, 2126

      Day 103

      CTS Marco Polo

      After finishing her morning shift as an instructor in Marco Polo's Virtual Reality Training Room number 1, Lieutenant Bridget O'Brien headed down to the Tropical Rain Forest Cafe, one of the colony transport ship’s handful of private eateries. When she got there, she looked around and saw her friend and roommate Lieutenant Anna Kane in a private booth in a relatively quiet corner of the establishment then walked over and took a seat next to the Norwegian shuttle pilot. Although O'Brien was a Colonial Security officer, Colonial Security was the law enforcement and public safety arm of Ranger Command, she had been drafted by Colonel Fleischmann to help prepare the 16 national detachments of Colonial Rangers to fight the aliens who had invaded the New Hope Colony. The outbound cargo supply ship Asia had delivered that news weeks ago along with the VR program gamers at the colony had developed for fighting aliens. The gamers on Marco Polo had improved it and O'Brien and Captain Ellen Spraeker, a weapons training officer from South Africa, were put in charge of the alien fighting VR training program.

      Bridget was the ship's record holder in the Demon Wolf fighting program at both Levels VI and V, and no one else was really even close to her except Spraeker at Level IV which was the mandatory qualification level for all Rangers. Fewer than half of the Rangers even tried Level V because of the difficulty and most of those who did couldn't finish the entire 25-minute session while O’Brien always did.

      Who did you have this morning? Kane asked.

      The Thais. You can feel the anxiety level rising as we get closer to the colony. They were pressing and regressing. I had to stop the session for a while and calm them down, remind them how much progress they had made over the last month. Things went better after that.

      Not surprising. I can feel my own anxiety level rising when I think about it. At least I've got the flight simulator to play with. Evasive maneuver practice is mandatory for all pilots. Worried about your niece and your brother, and let’s not forget your adopted sister?

      Bridget snorted, Of course, a bit, but not really. I can't dwell on that. Besides, those three can take care of themselves.

      It had been eight months since Bridget had seen her niece Ciara, Rick’s 14-year-old daughter, but it had been more than four years, almost five since she'd seen her brother or Molly Pickford in person although they’d all kept up a regular video correspondence until the last few months. She was so looking forward to seeing all of them again.

      Bridget and her sisters, Rick and Molly, Ciara and her mom Kelly Cassidy were all amazing marksmen and they set the records on every starship and at every Ranger Base they shipped out on or passed through. Bridget’s expertise had been noticed and she’d been asked to help train the Rangers when they learned about the aliens that had invaded the New Hope Colony. Her sister Nicole had joined the Marines as an officer and was now a platoon leader in an American Ranger detachment on her way to the colony on the cargo supply ship Australia which was following about two months behind the Marco Polo. Her youngest sister Chloe was also on the Australia. Kelly was now a major in Colonial Security. Ciara, a second-year student at the New Hope Academy, was the Level IV and V record holder on the Asia and was now a part-time instructor at the Ranger Base in New Hope Town helping train civilian volunteers to fight the aliens.

      We’re getting close now, Anna said. Do you think these guys will be ready for what they will be facing?

      We’ll see; some detachments are more ready than others. Some of them, like the Aussies who all heard what happened to the Australian detachment at the colony, are a bit more motivated than most, to say the least. We’re assuming that those alien starships that are racing us to the colony are bringing reinforcements so I don't think it'll be long before we get our first chance to fight them.

      ###

      When Bridget was eight years old, her father New York City police detective James ‘Jimmy’ O'Brien, was killed during a terrorist attack on one of the city’s airports. He died a hero protecting a group of civilians cornered by a dozen terrorist gunmen and thanks to him they all survived. It had been a terrible blow to her mom Kelly Cassidy, to Bridget and her brother Paul, who was 12 at the time, and to her younger sisters Nicole age 6 and Chloe who was just 4. Her mom was a senior weapons trainer at the New York Police Academy and she and Jimmy were the best marksmen the department had ever had. Not long after his death Kelly decided that she was going to train all of her children to protect themselves, to become expert marksman, beginning with Paul.

      Bridget and her sisters had been out with their aunt Colleen Sorensen, their dad’s sister, and their cousin Kathleen while Kelly took Paul to the Academy range on a Sunday when no one was around. When they got back, they were both really happy looking, happier than Bridget had seen either one since her dad had been killed two months before. When Colleen asked why they looked so happy Kelly had laughed then told them what had happened at the range that morning. Paul was having his first lesson on the live range and when he took his first shot he missed the target in front of him 30 feet away but the bullet ricocheted off a metal pole 20 feet behind it then hit a can about 50 feet to the right. Paul had jumped up with a huge smile and said, "All right! I hit it first try!" like that was his intention all along and I just started smiling and laughing, I couldn't help myself." It had greatly helped lift the terrible black cloud that had been hanging over the family since Jimmy’s death. After that, no one in the family called him Paul anymore, he was ‘Rick’, short for ricochet.

      In 2122, the O’Brien family’s world was turned upside down when Rick, now a Navy Logistics officer, teamed with a young female Marine staff sergeant named Susan ‘Molly" Bennett to kill Hasan Gul, the world’s most dangerous terrorist, and two of his sons during an incident at the American consulate in Cameroon. Hassan Gul had been aware that Bennett’s unit had been involved in the deaths of two of his other sons a few weeks earlier and was seeking vengeance on those Marines. He hadn’t known that it was Bennett herself who had killed them. After that, the remaining sons of Hassan Gul had gone after O’Brien and Bennett. Before long they were on the run and eventually had to fake their deaths and flee to the New Hope Colony with the help of then-Colonel Robert Black who was a family friend and would soon be the Commander of the Ranger Regiment at the New Hope Colony on Tau Ceti 4. They went under their new identities as Lieutenant Commander Rick Cassidy and Gunnery Sergeant Molly Pickford.

      Bridget had planned to go to graduate school to study solar power engineering but found that the direction of her life had changed. She joined the police force and within a year was posted as a sniper on an elite police SWAT team. Two years after joining the force she applied to Ranger Command to join the Colonial Security division. With a strong recommendation from Robert Black and with her superb record with the police force she was accepted easily. She had to wait until a slot opened but eventually, she went through Ranger training and shipped out on the colony transport ship Marco Polo.

      Hers wasn't the only life whose direction had changed after the incidents in Africa and their aftermath. Ciara had vowed to join her dad at the colony when she was old enough, the minimum age was 14, and after the meeting all of the stringent physical, mental and academic requirements she'd left Earth two months before Bridget on the cargo supply ship Asia. Nicole, inspired by her adopted sister Molly, had joined the Marines as an officer and had served with distinction in Africa before joining the Colonial Rangers. Chloe was going to the colony to help manage the many business ventures the family company Stellar Enterprises had going there, and their mom Major Kelly Cassidy was now married to Major General Robert Black who was now the senior officer at Ranger Command in Geneva, Switzerland.

      ###

      When Captain Daubert first informed the passengers and crew that they had received word from the Asia that the colony was under attack it had understandably created a great deal of the anxiety among the nearly 6.000 people onboard. They were still more than two months from orbit around the colony and by then rumors were already rampant. Speculation as to the cause of the loss of communications with the colony ranged from some terrible natural disaster to some simple technical problem that could be solved once the proper parts were delivered. Given the number of attacks on colony related facilities back on Earth it wasn’t surprising that some wondered if there had been sabotage of the colony comm system. No one had taken seriously the suggestion proposed by a few that an alien species might be behind it.

      Daubert knew that he had to give the Rangers as much time to prepare as possible but that as soon as they were informed, inevitably, the information would get out to the rest the passengers. The senior officers in the Ranger detachments and the support elements were informed first and they’d gathered their people together and broke the news before the general announcement was made. The Rangers were told that they would all be needed and that every one of them was going to be leaving the ship when they reached Tau Ceti 4. They were reminded that as veteran soldiers and members of the Colonial Rangers they all needed to do their duty to protect the civilian colonists and with few exceptions they all accepted that this was one of the risks they had signed up for and they would prepare themselves as best they could.

      Asia had sent them many visuals of the battles with the aliens and the Ranger detachments had all spent many hours reviewing them, trying to learn as much as possible before they arrived. Asia had also sent them a copy of a basic VR program developed at the colony for fighting the aliens and Marco Polo improved on it. With the starship’s greater technical resources programmers set out to create more advanced training programs that were as realistic as possible given the information that they now had to help teach the Ranger detachments on board how to fight the alien Raagaas and Jammies.

      There were a number of people who had the skills to create the VR program sequences and some of them were drafted into creating improved training modules. Some were from among the crew of the starship, others were Rangers who had done similar work in school or as hobbies and still others were from among the civilian passengers. These ‘game creators’ were given access to all of the information that they’d received from Asia with the exception of the casualty lists which were kept restricted to the senior Ranger officers. The ‘game creators’ studied the aliens’ physiology, size, strength, speed, their weapons, their reaction times and everything else that had been observed and recorded by the Rangers fighting them at the colony. By the time they reached the colony all of the new detachments would have far more experience fighting aliens, at least in VR, than any of the Rangers then on the planet had when the war began and Bridget O’Brien and her friend Ellen Spraeker were charged with making sure that that was the case.

      Chapter 2

      Gould Breaks the News

      January 1, 2127

      Day 104

      CSS North America

      Nina Gould had wrestled with the decision of when and how to break the stunning news of the alien invasion of the colony to her crew and passengers for two days. She gathered together her senior officers and the most senior officer among the handful of Rangers onboard, Captain Jordana Huffman, a medical officer from Germany, for a meeting in the starship’s main conference room. Huffman, like the other eleven Rangers onboard, had been delayed for one reason or another and had been unable to board Marco Polo before its departure from Earth. Also brought in on the troubling news were the two government representatives on their way to the colony, Canadian representative Dana Donati and the Bulgarian representative Boyan Antonov. Miss Donati was slated to replace the current representative who was due to return home soon and Antonov was following on the heels of his country’s first contingent of Colonial Rangers who were among the sixteen national detachments traveling to the colony on the Polo.

      After hearing the news, they all agreed that it was only a matter of time before questions started to be asked about the restricted messages from Asia and Marco Polo. They’d gotten their first contact with the Polo two days after hearing from the Asia. Gould had already decided to face the problem head on and she was glad they all felt the same way. She waited until after the ship’s cafeterias had finished serving the morning meal before having her duty communications officer Lieutenant Danica Sivak to put her on the ship’s public announcing system. She was sure the coming announcement would upset a lot of people.

      Ready when you are, Captain, said Sivak.

      Thanks, Danika. Gould nodded and Sivak activated the PA system.

      Gould took a deep breath and exhaled then said, "Attention, all passengers and crew of the North America. This is Captain Nina Gould speaking. I have some very important news that concerns us all. Please stop whatever you are doing and play close attention." Gould paused for a long moment allowing everyone to get settled and give their full attention to what she had to say next.

      "When we first arrived here in the Tau Ceti system we told you that there were some communication problems as far as talking to the New Hope Colony. These issues have not been resolved although we do know the cause of them. A few days ago, we received a transmission from the cargo supply ship Asia which had departed the colony after an extremely brief visit of just five days. What they had to say was shocking to say the least. Since then, we have been in regular communication with both the Asia and with the Marco Polo which is now about four weeks from their expected arrival at the colony.

      "I have discussed the situation with my senior officers and to be honest I had considered withholding this information from both our passengers and the other members of the crew until we got closer. However, you’ve all shown that you’re able to handle high levels of stress very well and you deserve to know the truth.

      "Well, it seems that one of the great questions of mankind has now been answered. We’ve known without a doubt for a long time that there is life out there in the universe. The planet the New Hope Colony was founded on abounds with life both on land and in the sea, plant and animal and sea creatures big and small. But what we have never found are signs of intelligent life, that is, technologically advanced life. Now we have and the ones we have met are not friendly. For more than three months the New Hope Colony has been under attack by two species of aliens, one apparently in command of the other. These aliens are now in control of the three largest settlements on the eastern half of the colony, Southport, New Cancun and New St. Louis. I know that among you are many friends and family members of colonists living in those settlements but I have been assured that all three settlements were evacuated before the aliens seized them. All three were lost in the first week of the invasion but since then the aliens have been beaten back in the north around Winter Haven and McKinley Station with very heavy losses. Our Colonial Rangers have suffered many casualties and Asia is transporting hundreds of them home to Earth. They are among the 1,000 passengers the ship is carrying back with them.

      "Since Asia was able to go to and then leave the colony without any interference, the Marco Polo fully intends to enter orbit around New Hope twenty-eight local days from now. The Polo is carrying 2,200 Rangers among her passengers and unless there is a direct threat to that ship they will be delivered to the colony and 10,000 more colonists will be evacuated back to Earth."

      "I’m sure that you’re all wondering now what we should do. Should we continue on or should we turn back? The answer is that we will continue on unless there is a direct threat to this ship. Although we are only carrying a handful of Rangers, the supplies we are carrying are needed and we are capable of taking as many as a thousand passengers back with us. In truth, turning around is not really an option. Having only come out of jump space a few days ago we are carrying too much velocity to get back to our jump point in less time than it will take to reach the colony. We will be vigilant and if we must abandon our course to the colony we will do so, but only if there is a direct threat to us. From the intelligence reports we have received from the colony and from the Asia and the Marco Polo it appears that the alien ships, a total of six now as far as they can tell, have avoided all starships coming and going from the planet over the past nine months or so and therefore their conclusion, not a certainty but a high probability, is that they do not have the capability to defend themselves from us or to attack us in orbit. It is also likely that they have no way to tell that we have no offensive weapons of our own.

      "How will this affect the remainder of your voyage to the colony is probably your next question. Well, in most ways your daily routines shall remain the same. Classes in progress will continue, you should maintain your personal physical training schedule and eating habits. However, after taking a look at the passenger list and your skill sets it is clear that a number of you will be asked to stay to help and to give up your spot for the voyage home.

      "This will not be a decision you need to make immediately nor should you make it lightly. As we receive more information from Asia and later from Marco Polo once they depart the colony, we will make it available to you. No one will be forced to stay but if you have a medical background or military experience you can count on being asked to remain. If you wish to volunteer to fight the aliens, a military background is not essential. Hundreds of civilian volunteers with no such experience have been trained and are now deployed to the various settlements and many have already fought the aliens during the past summer. Some of you may have family members there and you may want to stay with them if they are not going to be leaving. Give it some thought and know your mind before we arrive there so that you will know how to answer that request when you are asked."

      Gould paused again before continuing, letting what she’d just told them sink in, then said, "This is a lot to take in, I know. Once we have a more stable communications environment with less solar interference Asia will be sending us video recordings and we will get to see what these aliens look like and what they have done. Until then, please save any questions you may have for when I have more answers to give you. That is all for now and thank you for your patience. Captain Gould, out."

      Chapter 3

      A Change in the Weather

      CTL Cairo

      Gunnery Sergeant Molly Pickford had gone up to her cabin on the main deck of the 850-foot-long cargo transport lander Cairo to change clothes before going down to the VR trainer in the cargo bay. With the current level of snow on the ground they really weren’t too worried about the aliens returning to the mountain valley any time soon. It was obvious to everyone however that the demon wolves, the planet’s most deadly predators, would be coming sooner than later. She and Commander Rick Cassidy had decided on the drive back from their scouting trip to the lake three days earlier to intensify the virtual reality training for Jacks Company for the next several days. It was while fighting the alien Raagaas that the survivors of Cairo’s crash in the mountain valley had earned the named Jacks Company; Jacks was short for ‘Jacks the Giant Killers’.

      Rick was in the passenger lounge on the second deck having a hot chocolate with their Medical officer Major Maya Scott when their communications tech Sergeant Miruku Nakamura came over and plunked herself down on the other side of the table from them. The Gunny told me about the wolves and how deep the snow is now, Commander.

      Rick nodded and said, I think they’ll be coming in the next few days, a week on the outside, although I don’t think we really have that long. It could be tomorrow if the lake freezes over tonight.

      I hope not. At least the movement sensors are still above the snow level, not by much though. Less than a foot now, I think. You can step right over a sensor stream and not even know it without setting it off. I suppose we could try to raise them again but getting to some of them now won’t be easy. We can do the ones near the ship; the ones that are along the river and between the fort and the ship. The ones up in the woods though, I just don’t know if we can get to them.

      How much higher can you raise them? Scott asked her.

      Three feet, maybe a little more for the ones that are mounted on the second level of containers, and we can adjust their mates that are mounted on the ship’s hull. For the ones along the river, we would have to put all new support poles in and that would mean digging a hole down to the valley floor to anchor them so that they don’t move. As it is, they’re moving so much in the wind we’re getting a lot of false readings. I might be able to raise them another foot but beyond that I wouldn’t trust them either way. Of course, if we get another big snow, it’s not going to matter; they’ll be buried and useless.

      Well, we know that most likely that’s gonna happen eventually no matter what we do. We’ve got some blue skies today for a change and maybe we’ll have a couple more days of good weather even if the temperature drops and both the lake and the river freezes. Forget about raising them anymore and recover the ones you can. It was a good idea but there’s been too much snow and we may find a better use for them.

      Aye, Commander. I’ll take whoever is not on duty from squads One and Two. I’m sure they’ll be happy to go for a little ride in the scout cars, Miruku Nakamura said with a wry grin. The kids always liked to go for rides in the Ranger ATVs.

      Rick chuckled, No doubt. Let them know up on the main deck that you’re going out. I’ll be down in the VR trainer after I get changed.

      Yes, Commander.

      ###

      In contrast to the clear and sunny sky that morning, by mid-afternoon dark gray clouds were coming their way and the wind had picked up. Nakamura and her team had spent two hours collecting the movement sensors closest to the ship. They made a halfhearted attempt to reach a few of the pairs that had been mounted within the tree line but the snow was too deep and loose to get to them. By late afternoon the first flakes of snow were drifting down to the valley floor and the lookouts called Cassidy and Pickford to let them know that the weather had changed again.

      Rick Cassidy and Molly Pickford put their cold weather gear back on and made their way to the lookout station on the transport’s outer main deck. Captain Gabriella Tomei and Maya Scott were already outside when they arrived. The temperature had dropped appreciably and the wind had picked up from a light breeze to a strong and steady gust from the south.

      Jacks Company’s Executive officer was staring at the heavy black clouds that seemed to be rushing toward them from the south. I don’t like the look of those clouds, Gabi Tomei said. The temperature has dropped almost ten degrees since noon. I think this is going to be a big one. Tomei, the transport’s navigator and assistant engineering officer had been the only survivor of the four officers in the transport’s flight cabin.

      Shit, was all Rick Cassidy had to say for the moment. If the temperature continued to drop, the lake and the river might freeze over before the morning. The clock was ticking down to zero that much quicker now.

      We haven’t seen any wolves since the wind began to pick up, Commander, said 18-year-old Gina Bannerjee, the lookout watch team leader. Gina, a fourth-year student at the New Hope Academy, was from India and she was one of the older girls among the forty-six female students and four interns traveling on the Cairo when it was shot down.

      That just means they have more common sense than some humans do, Cassidy guffawed and Molly snorted; they both had experience with a number of humans who had failed to use common sense in the past.

      I’m going to bring back anyone who’s at the fort. How long do you want to leave the lookouts out here, Commander? Tomei asked him.

      I say as long as they can see, Molly said.

      I agree, Rick told Gabi. Make sure they’re all wearing snow goggles but once visibility has gotten to where they can no longer make anything out down there, go ahead and secure them until the weather improves.

      Tomei replied, Okay, once the after-lookouts can’t see anything we’ll bring them all in but if the wind picks up too much first, we’ll just secure the after-lookouts and keep this spot open until they can’t see anything either.

      Sounds good, Gabi, Rick agreed. He glanced up at the top of the access hatch and asked, When does Guy plan to put up that little enclosure on top of the airlock he was planning to build? Master Sergeant Guy Gilbert was the transport’s senior engineering tech.

      He told me that it was on his list of things to do for tomorrow but it might have to wait. He wants to make sure that it’s sturdy enough and secured to the deck so that it won’t get blown right off the ship with one of our lookouts inside.

      Rick grinned, No lookouts getting blown off the ship is probably a good idea.

      By nightfall the earlier flurries and brisk wind had turned into a full-fledged blizzard. Less than an hour after Cassidy had made his evening visit with the lookout team Tomei had to secure the watch when the high winds and blowing snow brought visibility down to zero. They would all just

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