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foothills.  It rapidly dropped from the sky.
    He waited for a fireball to rise higher than the near peaks, assuming it would explode on impact, as a ship heavily laden with arms and ammunition might do. However, Hortak saw only a geyser of dirt and dust as it slammed into the ridges below his own line of sight, as he approached the higher peaks still ahead of him.
    With his diversion now eliminated, his pursuit of the other clanship meant he too was running out of room to make a landing in the mountains. He either had to mimic, to a safer extent, the other ship’s last desperate action, or pull up and pass back through the orbital gauntlet to make his escape to space. Then he would have to perform another penetration later, and leave his finger clan looking inept to Gatlek Pendor.
    As he passed over the last of the high peaks, staying barely in the churning dark cloud bases as the updraft came up the steep rocky slopes, he dropped below the mountain crest on the other side, now shielding his turbulent wake from the pursuing missiles.
    He could see the dust still settling from the other ship’s crash site, being blown away rapidly by storm gusts, and collected by the mass of heavy raindrops falling. He made his decision. He would use the other ship’s sudden disappearance and dust to help conceal his own landing site. He flipped his ship end-for-end and applied his own savage reverse thrust. Not as strong as the other ship had used, somewhat less than maximum. With the heavy load he carried, the deceleration of all that inertia wasn’t disabling for him, but it was painfully difficult, and it stressed his ability to the limit to complete a safe manual landing. He selected a steep walled canyon, miles from where the other ship had crashed, and set down, with only a slight brush against a cliff side. Fortunately, there were no rock falls or boulders to avoid on the narrow valley floor.
    He cut thrust as the craft settled on its landing jacks, automatically adjusting for a slight slope due to his proximity to the sidewall. The wind whipped over the top of the cliff two hundred feet above the nose of his ship, shearing away the dust, as it had done for the other crash-landed clanship. Thirty seconds later, the first of the six missiles flashed over him on sensor readings, still embedded in the clouds. The other five missiles passed by in the same manner, spreading apart as they vainly sought new traces of his wake turbulence, chasing down vortices cause by nature. Low on fuel, the reusable rockets turned toward human lines, where they could be serviced and reused.
    Hortak was on the wrong side of the mountains from where he’d intended to train his warriors, but that only meant they had farther to travel to join up with him. This was still conquered territory, equally suited for training. He would radio to find out where his second ship had landed, but after the enemy missiles had withdrawn from the area.

Chapter 2: Box Canyon
     
    “Tet, can you hear me?” Dillon had only just recovered, and was concerned for his older and still motionless friend. Thad was trying to fumble his own couch release switch, to rise to his feet and check on the still form of the captain, across the four-way control console from him. Reynolds was clearly breathing, and making snoring sounds, but had not moved yet. Mirikami was so still that neither Dillon nor Thad, having just regained their senses, could detect any sign he was breathing.
    Suddenly Dillon had another thought, of even more concern to him personally. Where were their two sons? “Carson and Ethan aren’t on their couches.” He looked around the Bridge, and the four SGs were the only people he could see.
    Thad carefully placed his feet on the floor, and felt dizzy as he tried to stand. Nevertheless, he leaned around to look at the deck below the couches where their two son’s had ridden next to Mirikami and Reynolds, and they were not down on the deck. “They aren’t here. Did