Read Valor's Trial for Free Online

elbows and knees, she gave what help she could.
    â€œYou okay, Gunny?”
    â€œI’m fine, Anderson. Thanks,” she added as the heavy gunner set her on her feet. Fortunately, the exoskeletons had been unaffected by whatever pulse the Others had hit them with. Half turning, she saw another heavy drag Lieutenant Jarret out from under the collapsed barrier.
    â€œWe’ve got to stop meeting like this, Gunny . . .” He coughed and spat out a mouthful of mud. “. . . people’ll start to talk.”
    Torin’s lips caught against the dirt on her teeth. “Let them talk, sir.”
    He returned her grin. “What’s your heading?”
    â€œLieutenant Heerik’s three squad is up front.” New bruises were rising, but everything essential still worked. “We need to place them so the captain can call in coordinates for the air strike.”
    The lieutenant glanced at the Marines working to rebuild the blown section, his lilac eyes dark. “Call in on what? Nothing’s working!”
    â€œWe’ve had word that Signals are running filament. Should be out our way eventually.”
    â€œAnd until then?”
    Gunnery sergeants did not ever admit they didn’t know. “Smoke signals, sir.”
    He blinked, then he grinned again and nodded. “Stay on thirty-seven degrees. If she proved to have half a brain and stayed put, you’ll find Heerik.”
    â€œYes, sir!”
    â€œKeep your head down, Gunny.”
    â€œCount on it, sir.”
    She didn’t find Heerik, but she found her other two squads. “God damn it, Doctorow, don’t tell me you’ve lost your lieutenant already!”
    The staff sergeant rolled his eyes. “She went up to find three squad.
    â€œShe went herself with this lot sitting on their fine Marine asses getting fat?”
    The Marines close enough to hear suddenly found something to look at over the barricade.
    â€œSaid it was her job. Wouldn’t listen to me. Slipped away when I was dealing with . . .”
    Screaming.
    â€œ. . . that. Damn it, Huran,” he whirled and glared at the corpsman. “Knock him out if you can’t shut him up.”
    â€œWe’ve been through this, Staff. His religion says he can only lose consciousness naturally.”
    Padarkadale. Or most of him.
    Torin held up her right arm. “See all these hooks? They say my religion trumps his. Dope him!”
    â€œGunny, I . . .”
    â€œDo it!”
    â€œThat was intolerant of Padarkadale’s beliefs,” Doctorow muttered as Huran bent back over his patient.
    â€œYes, it was,” Torin told him as the private stopped screaming. “His god can talk to me about it later. Which way did Heerik go?”
    â€œThat way—one hundred and eleven degrees from Marine zero.”
    Torin lined up on the way he was pointing and checked her sleeve. “How far?”
    â€œShouldn’t be more than a klik and a half.” He snorted. “Could be anywhere in hell’s half acre.”
    Another set of 774s roared by. Higher this time.
    â€œThey’ll start dropping by eye any minute now,” Doctorow noted, glaring up into the sky.
    â€œThey’ve started.”
    â€œOh, fukking joy.”
    One hundred and eleven degrees took Torin over the barricade . . .
    â€œ. . . through the woods and to grandmother’s house we go,” she muttered, slapping a filter over her mouth and nose. That took care of breathing, but with all the dust in the air, she could hardly see. Running bent almost double, KC-7 in her right hand, left arm out in front to maintain her bearing, she concentrated on keeping the readout in the green.
    From the sound of it, things were getting interesting in the lower atmosphere.
    Interesting was seldom good for the Marines on the ground.
    At a klik and a half, during a miraculous pause in both artillery and the air show, she thought she heard voices. Two hundred and fifty