Chapter 17 part 4

Graves lifted an admonishing finger. "Never underestimate an opponent, McGill. If they had all their credits dumped into weaponry the way we do…just think of it. What if the saurian waves you faced had been as well-equipped as we were? What would have happened?"

"I don't know. They may have wiped us."

He nodded slowly. "Exactly. That was their plan from the start. They gave us a phony contract and we signed on. Then they cheated by fielding, as you so eloquently put it, 'endless waves of lizards'. Now, they're claiming victory with the Galactics. Worse, you personally managed to kill the chief Inspector, the very individual that will decide the outcome of this territorial struggle, twice."

I stared at him. My eyes were squinched up and my teeth were bared in a grimace. I felt slightly sick, and I didn't think it was due to the bad regrow this time.

"Yes," Graves said, smiling at me grimly. "I can see now that you fully grasp the situation and your part in it. Now, kindly get the hell out of my tower. I'm already regretting letting them revive you at all."

I headed for the door, and I didn't look back.

Fortunately, I was excused from the knife-fighting exercises for the day. I wasn't really up to it. I was feeling better by dinner, and by the next day, as the ship began lurching and firing maneuvering jets, my stomach was operating fully again.

But I wasn't happy. I knew, possibly more than any other recruit in the legion, what was really going on. We weren't here to guard some mining complex. We were here to prove we could outfight an equivalent number of lizards—and from what I'd seen, the enemy was more than willing to cheat in this regard throwing at us ten times our weight in lizards. I had no idea how many dinos we'd killed thus far, but it had to be more than ten thousand all together. Maybe the number was twice that high.

The problem was the enemy had the resources of an entire planet to draw upon. They had millions of lives to spend. We had a finite number of men and guns. Our only advantages were in equipment and know-how. We had professional, well-armed troops—troops that could come back to life and fight again, over and over. It was a grim thought, and I felt that a grim battle was surely coming.

Our first advantage, which our tribune was hastily employing, was maneuverability. Using Corvus, we could come down wherever we wanted and face the enemy on our own terms. I was sure the saurians below us were watching closely wondering what our next move was going to be. Aboard ship speculation was rampant.