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luggage was the A-suits and the E's, and the Legion was taking care of that.
    "ID's." The trooper didn't even look up. We dropped our Legion ID's on his desk. He waved them at a d-screen and read the result.
    "You haven't been here five marks, and you're in trouble already. Report to Chief Ops, see the ship for the zero. NOW, bodies! Why are you still standing there?"
    "Sir!"
    "Sir!" We snatched back our ID's and hustled out into the corridor, almost colliding with a squad of fully armed and armored troopers, staggering along in their black A-suits, shouting at each other, scraping along the walls, armor shrieking against armor.
    "OUT OF THE WAY, FLESH!" We tried to merge with the corridor walls as the troopers crowded past us. Their suits stank of slick and grit and an awful scorched scent that I knew well. I could smell the E's too, a savage, choking musk, the stink of battle, a sickening gel from the exhaust gasses of flame and X and canister. Damn! We were back, all right.
    We had no trouble finding Chief Ops. We knew the Spawn well. She had been one of Atom's Road's cruisers. She carried us to Coldmark and Andrion 3 and later delivered us to the Maiden , on our fatal mission to Mongera. The Spawn was an old friend.
    "Trooper Zero, reporting as ordered, sir!"
    "Trooper Zero, reporting as…"
    "Yeah, yeah, go on in, he's there." A harried aide gestured towards a closed door while scanning a d-screen.
    The door snapped open as we marched in, then slid shut behind us. It was a small darkened comcenter cube, glowing with d-screens. A shadowy figure turned from a large wall screen, lit by the green reflections from a sitmap. He emerged from the shadows, a young trooper, glaring at us with hot pink eyes burning like coals in a face so pale we could see the blue veins throbbing at his temples. His thin bloodless lips were set firmly and a lock of white-blond hair hung loosely over one side of his face. Snow Leopard—Beta One, our old squad leader. He stood there for an instant, frozen, taking us in.
    "You crazy bastards," he finally said. "What the hell are you doing here?"
    "Hello, One," I said. "You're looking good."
    "Come here," he said. He reached out and seized one of my hands in a grip of iron and flung an arm around my shoulders and pulled me to him and we just stood there for a moment in silence, embracing. And it was almost as if all of Beta was there, watching us—the dead and the living, ghosts all, ghosts from the past. I could feel them, swirling around us in the dark. Then Snow Leopard broke away, seemingly embarrassed, and turned to Priestess.
    She came to him like a lover, throwing her arms around him, and they stood there for a few moments, lost in the past. And I thought, we are truly lost. We had it all and we threw it away, but it doesn't matter. This is where we really belong. We're back with Beta, back on Atom's Road , right where we began.
    "Have a seat, gang," Snow Leopard said, sweeping a big stack of plastic printouts off a desk onto the deck to make room for us. "Welcome to Recon. What the hell happened? We heard you got your assignment, Thinker—you and Priestess, on Andrion 2. It's what you always wanted. You dreamed about that for years. So why are you here?"
    I looked at Priestess, and she looked at me. Impossible to answer.
    "We enjoyed it as long as we could, One," I replied. "It was wonderful—it was paradise. But we couldn't continue. Not with the war. Not with all of Beta out here."
    "You're both crazy," Snow Leopard declared. "Priestess, couldn't you talk any sense into him?"
    Priestess shook her head glumly. "Sorry, One. There's no sense involved. We're here—that's all."
    "Crazy. More crazies. Stupid and crazy." Snow Leopard sounded angry. "All right—fine. We can use you. You'll have lots of company here. I've assigned you both to Dragon's squad. You'll replace his dead. I'd advise you to update your wills. Life spans are short in Recon. If you want to die, you've come to the right