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."In here beats the heart of a warrior, Lieutenant O'Neal," he said seriously."But warrior and soldier are not always the same thing.Do you have thediscipline of a soldier or only the fierceness of a warrior?""I can take and give orders, sir," said O'Neal after a moment's consideration."I consider myself a soldier.The aspect of the warrior is one that thecurrent service tends to suppress, incorrectly in my opinion.Only a warriorcan carry through when all around him are dead.There are many soldiers in theworld, but battles hinge on the warriors.""Then listen to this with your soldierly aspect, Lieutenant," the general saidwith a grim expression."If thePosleen come back in strength, we are going to pull out, whether the Americanunit is here or not."It was much what he had expected but less than he hoped."Did you talk toGeneral Houseman about that?" asked the lieutenant, carefully."It was his order.One that I fully concur with by the way.The main lineneeds my troops relatively intact.When the Posleen come back they will behere to stay; they won't be frightened off again.TheCorp needs my division in support of the line.We cannot stay here andsacrifice ourselves on the altar of courage.Do you understand?" The generallooked at the blank face of the armor and wondered what the face inside wasexpressing."Yes, sir.I understand." Mike paused and tapped controls on his forearm.After a moment he continued."Sir, I and my platoon will remain here until I feel the position isuntenable.""Very well, I concur.I hope that the situation never comes to pass.""Mon General!" one of the French staff officers shouted, gesturing with a radio microphone.General Crenaus walked back to the command post, trailed by Mike."General, there is a transmission from one of the Medevac helicopters.Theyreport a large vessel of some sort coming towards us over the city.""Give it to me," said the general, snatching the microphone from the staffer."This is General Crenaus, who is this?"* * *CWO4 Charles Walker liked nothing better than flat out, low-level flying.Crank a Blackhawk or OH-58and take it down to the deck on maximum overdrive.Pissed the hell out ofmaintenance personnel and commanders were never really happy about it, butwhen you came down to cases, it was the best place to be in combat.As thecurrent situation proved.There was a small gap in the coverage by the Posleen and it was on the deck ina twisting course into the landing slot the ground-pounders had cleared out.There was insufficient room to turn around and go back out to sea, so to landthe helicopter was required to spool up to the top of the building and swivelaround and drop sharply down to a landing.Then the broken bodies of thearmored cav troopers would be loaded and you went back out on the deck.Therewere over a hundred helicopters from the different contingents operating andthe miracle was that no crashes had occurred.As Walker made the lastlow-level bank and turned into the climb up to the roof his right seat, a CWO1he had never met before today, let out a gasp.Page 198 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"What the hell is that?" he asked gesturing with his chin.Warrant Officer Walker looked up and to the left.In the distance, it was hardto determine how far because the perspective was distorted, a giganticmultisided ship was rising.It echoed a tantalizing memory for a moment thenit came to him.In his younger days he had watched a Dungeons and Dragons gamegoing on in one of the junior officers' rooms; the vessel raising itself up inthe distance looked identical to one of the game's oddly shaped dice.Blackand pitted by.weapons.Oh, shit."Get the Frogs on the horn," he snapped."I think they're about to havecompany." He poured power to the engines fighting into the climb as fast as hecould.As his engine temperature started to increase he could only hope thathis chopper would be too insignificant a target to matter.His right seater was gabbling in the radio as he decided not to take thechance.He jinked hard right then left.In the back, the crew chief waspreparing to open the troop doors.The sudden bank threw him across the cargoarea and into the far door with a "whuff" of expelled air.He grabbed histether line and started to hand over hand to a seat.Walker continued a hardswerving, sliding climb toward the top of the building.Suddenly there was a wash of heat as a bolt of plasma passed through the spacethe helicopter had just occupied.Walker jerked the collective up and over andthe Blackhawk was suddenly inverted and headed for the deck.His copilotyelled and tried to grab the controls as the abused crew chief in theback let out a scream but Walker flattened the bird back out practically onthe deck.They had descended over a thousand feet in a pair of seconds."Call the French," shouted the concentrating warrant officer."I am didee-mao!We can't crest that building and live.And if we can't crest the building wecan't pull the wounded out.Therefore we are outta here!"He felt like a shit to be leaving all those wounded behind but there was noway he would face whatever that was.He saw the other helicopters banking intothe land, running for the cover of the seaside buildings, even if they hadoccupying Posleen.Better that than the battleship headed this way.In thedistance those too far out to sea started to flare and die.He cursed fate but there was nothing he could do.Even if he was riding aslick there was nothing he could do; there was nothing in the armory thatcould attack that thing and live.But finesse it? He thought about the cavernsbetween the buildings, he thought about good times he'd had, he thought aboutstupid pride and arrogance and he pulled the bird into a hard bank."What the hell are you doing now?" asked his right seater.In the back thecrew chief let out another"chuff" as he was swung on his line and slammed into a seat.This time he gota grip on it, climbed in and strapped down."We can extract down the secured boulevard to the MLR.We'll take fire brieflyat the intersections but if we firewall it we might make it.""Might is not a good answer!" shouted the copilot."There are wounded and we are going in for them, Mister.That is all there isto it.""Fuck.""That's `Fuck, sir!' ""Fuck, sir.""You know the Coast Guard motto, boy?" asked the warrant officer after amoment." `Semper Paratus'?" the right-seater asked, confused."Not that one, the unofficial one.`We gotta go out, we don't have to comeback.' ""Oh.Yeah." The junior warrant nodded his head with a resigned expression.Page 199 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Roger that, sir
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