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Speaker 1: Chapter eight, Rowland, so you were there, right, Sardar asked,

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Speaker 1: you saw the white house burn Sardar was Jim's mechanic.

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Speaker 1: He was a short, slightly pudgy kid with a wide,

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Speaker 1: handsome face and scan a couple of shades darker than

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Speaker 1: Roland's own. This was maybe his twentieth question since Jim's

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Speaker 1: aircraft had dropped their transport off two hours ago. The

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Speaker 1: other members of Jim's team hadn't said so much as

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Speaker 1: a word to Rowland. They all listened, though he could

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Speaker 1: see the tension in their shoulders and feel the vibrations

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Speaker 1: in the air as their ears twitched and their eyes

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Speaker 1: darted over to watch his replies. The fact that they

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Speaker 1: were all cramped together inside the armored confines of a

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Speaker 1: maddis a PC made it easy to read the room.

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Speaker 1: Roland wasn't a hundred percent sure if the young mrk

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Speaker 1: had been put up to the task of questioning him,

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Speaker 1: or if Sardar was just an inquisitive soul. Roland smelled

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Speaker 1: a light drizzle of nervousness waft off the boy. He'd

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Speaker 1: caught several glances between Sardar and Bigsby, but neither of

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Speaker 1: those facts were proof of anything. Nervousness was a perfectly

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Speaker 1: natural reaction to hanging out in a cramped metal box

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Speaker 1: with a guy you'd just been trying to murder. I

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Speaker 1: remember pieces of it, Roland replied, fucking somebody in the

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Speaker 1: Lincoln bedroom, stealing liquor from the kitchens, shooting in the ball,

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Speaker 1: returned the White House bowling alley. Sardar shook his head.

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Speaker 1: That's fucking loco. You're like a history book. I bet

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Speaker 1: I read about ship you did back in high school, probably,

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Speaker 1: Roland said with a shrug. He had about nine clear

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Speaker 1: memories of his life before the shack on Camelback Mountain,

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Speaker 1: and none of them felt very historic. Can I get

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Speaker 1: your autograph? Man, Sardar asked Bigsby the posthuman Rowland had

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Speaker 1: been about to arm club in a submission a day ago.

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Speaker 1: Shook his head and groaned in embarrassment. One of the

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Speaker 1: women he'd buried in his collapsed hovel grunted out a laugh.

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Speaker 1: Her name was Nadine or something with an inn. Anyway,

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Speaker 1: she and her partner Asime were both close assault specialists

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Speaker 1: like the rest of the crew, except Tardar. They'd been

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Speaker 1: cold to Roland ever since he'd beat the living hell

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Speaker 1: out of them. Something occurred to him. Hey, I got

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Speaker 1: a question for you, he said to Sardar. Yeah, your

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Speaker 1: crew has been real pissy to me this whole ride.

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Speaker 1: Roland nodded at Biggsby. How exactly did you guys expect

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Speaker 1: that fight to go down? Sardar pursed his lips. He

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Speaker 1: seemed at a loss for a second. Then he said,

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Speaker 1: Jim framed it as just a standard guilt team action.

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Speaker 1: We've done that sort of thing a couple of times.

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Speaker 1: Last year there was this crumbed out Nazi in Idaho,

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Speaker 1: so he tricked you. Then Roland interrupted, convince you this

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Speaker 1: was just another assassination when all he really wanted to

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Speaker 1: do was get my attention. Roland looked around and realized

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Speaker 1: the rest of the transport was glaring at him. Biggsby

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Speaker 1: spat on the ground in front of Roland's foot. We'd

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Speaker 1: devised you if he'd given us another minute. Roland just

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Speaker 1: laughed and turned his eyes back to Sardar. It's clear

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Speaker 1: you and the other guy, he gestured at the young

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Speaker 1: man next to Sardar, are the only smart bastards in

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Speaker 1: the unit. Since you didn't get back up when I

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Speaker 1: beat you, down. Sardar squirmed a little, clearly uncomfortable me

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Speaker 1: and pedro He gestured to the other man, We're just engineers.

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Speaker 1: We don't go toe to toe with the with whatever

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Speaker 1: you are all this conversation, the most he'd had in years,

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Speaker 1: made Roland feel uncomfortably lucid. He rooted around in the

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Speaker 1: tattered old backpack he'd brought with him. It contained one

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Speaker 1: rusty Mateba auto revolver that he'd found under the floorboards

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Speaker 1: of his collapsed shack, and five point oh eight seven

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Speaker 1: kilograms of assorted narcotics, mostly opiates. Roland remembered how fun

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Speaker 1: it was to watch things explode while high on oxy.

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Speaker 1: He pulled a pillbottle out of the sack, delauted, and

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Speaker 1: poured half of it into his mouth. Roland swallowed, then

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Speaker 1: guzzled the second half. Jesus said, will the man he'd

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Speaker 1: stabbed in the throat with a piece of wood yesterday,

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Speaker 1: this is the guy who kicked the ship out of us.

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Speaker 1: I am sorry about that, Roland said. If I'd known

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Speaker 1: we were going to wind up sharing an a PC,

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Speaker 1: I probably would have just choked you out. Mortar fire incoming.

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Speaker 1: Roland's hindbrain ran the calculations estimated it at around eight

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Speaker 1: miles out. He sat up straight, since his focus towards

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Speaker 1: the sound of the fire. Bigsby and Asim reacted the

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Speaker 1: same way. They clearly splurged on the good ears. The

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Speaker 1: rest of the team didn't seem to have heard. They're

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Speaker 1: shooting ahead. As Amy said, sixty millimeter mortars. Get up, folks,

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Speaker 1: Biggsby added, as he pulled his own S thirty barret

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Speaker 1: assault rifle from its resting place on the wall behind him.

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Speaker 1: The funk was that as Amy cocked an eyebrow, her

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Speaker 1: left ear twitched, her tan, lean face flushed red with excitement.

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Speaker 1: I don't recognize that one me either, Biggsby grunted. The

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Speaker 1: other post human looked to Roland with clear frustration. You

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Speaker 1: recognize that, Roland did. It's an M one forty two,

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Speaker 1: he said, Mobile rocket Artillery antique U S military issue.

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Speaker 1: Will looked over to Bigsby, confused, I've never heard of

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Speaker 1: anything like that in the sdf's armory. It's not the SDF,

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Speaker 1: Roland explained, slurring his words more than a little. The

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Speaker 1: opiates had just started to hit. Holy sh it, I

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Speaker 1: loved allotted. He thought that's in coming can't you tell,

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Speaker 1: he said, not a not from this distance. As Ame answered,

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Speaker 1: she glanced awkwardly over to her partner, need put a

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Speaker 1: hand on her thigh and squeezed. Could you not be

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Speaker 1: monstrously fucked up when we're about to go into battle,

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Speaker 1: Biggsby asked. He seemed angry. Roland debated, offering one of

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Speaker 1: his handfuls of pills. He decided he'd much rather save

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Speaker 1: them for later. First off, I didn't sign up for battle,

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Speaker 1: he explained, as he popped and chewed a pair of

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Speaker 1: morphine tablets. Second, we still got about almost eight miles

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Speaker 1: before we hit the front. Plenty of time to sober up.

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Speaker 1: Eight miles, asked Sardar. The Richardson line is fifteen miles out.

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Speaker 1: More mortars crumped in the distance. Roland heard blossoms of

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Speaker 1: heavy machine gun fire too, and the hums of dozens

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Speaker 1: of assault drones. Hey, Biggs, the voice of the APC's

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Speaker 1: driver crackled over the vehicle intercom. There's a lot of

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Speaker 1: craziness coming in from the main s d F channels.

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Speaker 1: It sounds like a major assault. The martyrs have pushed

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Speaker 1: all the way to deep Ellum. Some of the field

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Speaker 1: commanders are talking about a full retreat, Jesus shitting christ Will, Bigsby,

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Speaker 1: and Nadine all cursed at the same time. Roland thought

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Speaker 1: it was cute. It tugged at his heart strings a little.

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Speaker 1: He missed being part of a close knit team. Some

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Speaker 1: of his stronger memory fragments involved really good times he'd

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Speaker 1: had during and after the war. He remembered blowing up

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Speaker 1: an armored school bus with a guy named Mike, throwing

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Speaker 1: rotten oranges at a government sniper with Jim. His brain

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Speaker 1: also brought up snatches of late night drinking sessions and

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Speaker 1: watching cartoons on an old projector in the desert. When

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Speaker 1: he closed his eyes, he could smell the burning man's

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Speaker 1: anita smoke of their camp fire. Payne tugged at his heart,

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Speaker 1: but he was jerked out of his revereree by the

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Speaker 1: sound of an explosion. It was big and close enough

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Speaker 1: that everyone in the APC heard it, even though Roland's

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Speaker 1: hindbrain put the distance at over seven miles away. V. B. I, E. D. Bigsby,

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Speaker 1: and Asime said at the same time, real big One,

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Speaker 1: as Ame nodded. Roland could tell that the explosives rigged

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Speaker 1: vehicle had been an E series Mercedes truck. But he

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Speaker 1: didn't bring that up. No one liked to know it all.

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Speaker 1: Biggsby's mouth opened and closed, the telltale sign of someone

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Speaker 1: having a subvocal conversation through their deck. Roland could have

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Speaker 1: read his lips, but that would have been rude. Instead,

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Speaker 1: he looked over to Sardar. If the gig is called

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Speaker 1: an account of war, you want to get ship faced

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Speaker 1: in Austin with me? The kid blinked, then replied, I mean,

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Speaker 1: of course, but I'm pretty sure boss Man's gonna want

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Speaker 1: us to do the job, even if it's hot out there.

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Speaker 1: Roland growled a little without thinking and start a cringed.

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Speaker 1: I did not sign up to defend against an active invasion.

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Speaker 1: I'm here to funk up property, not people. Jim says,

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Speaker 1: that's still the plan. You funk up the property, Biggsby grunted.

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Speaker 1: My fam and I are here to funk up the people.

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Speaker 1: A red hot cherry of anger bloomed in Roland's heart.

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Speaker 1: That wasn't the deal, he said, and Jim knows it.

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Speaker 1: One of you call him and loot me in on

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Speaker 1: your screen. I'll set this right. Call him yourself. Spat Bigsby,

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Speaker 1: he can't Startar pointed out, he's got a dead deck,

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Speaker 1: no signal at all. True, Noll, why the hell would

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Speaker 1: you go null? As Am started to ask, Bigsby interrupted her,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't matter why this ascopters null. I'm on with

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Speaker 1: Jim and he says you're under contracts. Still, we'll make

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Speaker 1: sure you don't have to cack anybody. For a moment,

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Speaker 1: Roland focused his attention outside the little a PC. His

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Speaker 1: hind brain coalated the bursts and vibrations that echoed out

157
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Speaker 1: around the battlefield. It compared them with his peda bites

158
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Speaker 1: of stored combat data and the last map of Dallas

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Speaker 1: he downloaded before severing his deck. In a couple of seconds,

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Speaker 1: he had what his Heiden brain assured him was an

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Speaker 1: accurate projection of the current fighting. It didn't look good

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Speaker 1: for the defenders, and what if it's too much for

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Speaker 1: you guys out there? Rowland asked, you can expect my

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Speaker 1: ask to murder a bunch of strangers to get you

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Speaker 1: and your fam home safe. Bigsby rolled his eyes. It's

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Speaker 1: a bunch of fucking martyrs. Maybe they caught the SD

167
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Speaker 1: off with their pants down, but they'll loose steam soon enough.

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Speaker 1: Those savages are all baseline sapien. We got chrome on

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Speaker 1: our side. Roland shrugged. If you're wrong, I'm gonna take

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Speaker 1: one of your nipples home with me, just a heads up.

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Speaker 1: The other post human's face turned to purple. It grew

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Speaker 1: purpler still when Sardar laughed at the remark. Sorry, Biggs,

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Speaker 1: it's fucking funny, man, it wasn't a joke. Roland shared

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Speaker 1: them both. They hit Dallas proper ten minutes later. Their

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Speaker 1: arrival was heralded by the sounds of car horns, squealing brakes,

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Speaker 1: and frustrated shouts, the songs of a city at war.

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Speaker 1: Flashes of memory from this same city in a different

178
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Speaker 1: war shot through Roland's mind. They kept him occupied while

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Speaker 1: Bigsby and his squad prepped their combat gear. There was

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Speaker 1: something almost comforting about the sound of men and women

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Speaker 1: arming for battle. He remembered the way Mike ran through

182
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Speaker 1: the lyrics of Iye of the Tiger before every op,

183
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Speaker 1: and the careful way Jim had loaded his pre battle

184
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Speaker 1: meth pipe. The crump of mortar fire and the boom

185
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Speaker 1: of heavier artillery grew louder and louder. The sour sinse

186
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Speaker 1: of Gamma amino butaric acid, cortisol, and epinephrin filled the cabin.

187
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Speaker 1: Bigsby's team had good game faces, but they were nervous.

188
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Speaker 1: Biggs the driver's voice crackled over the intercom. I'm seeing

189
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Speaker 1: a shipload of hostile drone activity. Sky is fucking angry

190
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Speaker 1: right now. Might be best at dismountain hit. Roland smelled

191
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Speaker 1: the fuel burning off in the ache of the hell

192
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Speaker 1: Fire missile roughly a second before it hit. He knew

193
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Speaker 1: the archaic munition didn't have the ability to penetrate a

194
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Speaker 1: man as a PC, but he still warned his fellows,

195
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Speaker 1: missiles are coming. What Sardar asked? And then it hit.

196
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Speaker 1: The impact rocked the vehicle on its axles and bounced

197
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Speaker 1: its hapless passengers into the hard metal edges of the cabin.

198
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Speaker 1: Roland bounced with them, although for him the pain of

199
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Speaker 1: impact was more curiosity than actual discomfort. The driver braked hard.

200
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Speaker 1: Roland heard and felt as the APEC collided with what

201
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Speaker 1: sounded like the outer wall of a large concrete building.

202
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Speaker 1: He smelled blood on Sardar and Nadine. From the sound

203
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Speaker 1: of the blast and the resulting crash, he guessed the

204
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Speaker 1: APC's front axle had splintered. Ryan the driver was unconscious.

205
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Speaker 1: He'd hit his head hard enough that the trauma nanites

206
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Speaker 1: in his blood stream had knocked him out while they

207
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Speaker 1: worked to stop the swelling in his brain. Out out,

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Speaker 1: move it, motherfucker's, Biggsby shouted. There was a hiss as

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Speaker 1: the rear inside exit hatches of the APC fired. Open

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Speaker 1: light streamed into the vehicle. Bigsby was out first, his

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Speaker 1: very large rifle at the ready. Dean and Asime followed

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Speaker 1: behind him. The former had a Juggernaut auto shotgun, the

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Speaker 1: latter had an IM fourteen sniper rifle. There were no

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Speaker 1: infantry nearby, not yet, but Rowland closed his eyes, concentrated,

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Speaker 1: and after a second his hindbrain guessed that the nearest

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Speaker 1: ground troops were about a quarter of a mile away,

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Speaker 1: six men in Airy's pattern powered armor, followed by fifty

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Speaker 1: unmodified human soldiers, a half dozen technicals, and two drone carriers.

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Speaker 1: The men in the Airy suits were the only thing

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Speaker 1: that concerned him. Powered armor couldn't make an unmodified human

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Speaker 1: into a true match for a god fucking monster engine

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Speaker 1: like himself, but it could give a squad the firepower

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Speaker 1: they needed to do some real damage. If they could

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Speaker 1: hurt Rowland, they could kill Bigsby and his team. His

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Speaker 1: hindbrain told him that the power armored soldiers would be

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Speaker 1: in weapons range within two minutes, just enough time to

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Speaker 1: roll a blunt He grabbed a blunt wrap and a

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00:11:49,080 --> 00:11:51,720
Speaker 1: bag of groundweed out of his backpack and started to roll.

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00:11:51,760 --> 00:11:54,679
Speaker 1: As he walked out of the abandoned a PC, Sardar

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Speaker 1: and Pedro had taken cover behind the vehicle and started

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Speaker 1: to administer basic first aid to their wounded driver. Will

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Speaker 1: was a few meters ahead on overwatch, covering them all

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Speaker 1: with his heavy M ninety four belt fed grenade launcher.

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Speaker 1: The others were nowhere to be seen. Roland heard them though,

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Speaker 1: About fifteen meters west of the stricken transport. He felt

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Speaker 1: them take up firing positions. Should I warn Biggsby about

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00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:17,800
Speaker 1: the armored guise, Roland wondered. He shook his head and

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Speaker 1: said nah out loud. Sardar stared at him. The wheed

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00:12:22,160 --> 00:12:24,960
Speaker 1: was dry and slightly yellowed with age. Roland had certainly

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Speaker 1: smoked better, but he'd smoked worse often enough not to complain.

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Speaker 1: He drizzled the crumbled herb into the blunt wrap and

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Speaker 1: rolled it between his fingers. He licked the seam and

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00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:35,960
Speaker 1: sealed it. As he watched Sardar shoot a stem capsule

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Speaker 1: into Ryan's neck, the driver started to regain consciousness. Roland

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00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:42,040
Speaker 1: lit his blunt, took a hit, and offered it to

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Speaker 1: the man. Welcome back to the land of the living,

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Speaker 1: he said, with a cheerful grin pop. Sardar gave him

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Speaker 1: a stern look. Is this really the time? The screech

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Speaker 1: of a rocket propelled grenade filled the air outgoing fire.

250
00:12:54,640 --> 00:12:57,320
Speaker 1: It must have been from a nearby SDF position engaged

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00:12:57,360 --> 00:13:00,360
Speaker 1: with the advancing martyrs. Of course there's time, said Roland.

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Speaker 1: We got a solid ninety seconds until they're here. Might

253
00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:06,320
Speaker 1: as well get high. The kid rebuffed his offer. Roland

254
00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:08,320
Speaker 1: would have been a little hurt if he hadn't secretly

255
00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:10,439
Speaker 1: hoped they'd turn him down. It took a lot of

256
00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:12,839
Speaker 1: pot to get him high. One whole blunt was about

257
00:13:12,840 --> 00:13:16,080
Speaker 1: the right amount for where he wanted to be. Bigsby

258
00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:18,840
Speaker 1: opened up with his heavy machine gun. A vague worry

259
00:13:18,880 --> 00:13:21,920
Speaker 1: started to grow inside Roland. The armored martyrs had moved

260
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Speaker 1: faster than anticipated. Am I going to have time to

261
00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:27,079
Speaker 1: finish smoking? He was thankful that he'd at least loaded

262
00:13:27,160 --> 00:13:30,080
Speaker 1: up on pain killers before reaching the front. The machine

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00:13:30,080 --> 00:13:32,600
Speaker 1: gun was joined by the sharp crack of Nadine's sniper

264
00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:35,760
Speaker 1: rifle and the rich bellow of Asime's auto shotgun. It

265
00:13:35,880 --> 00:13:38,920
Speaker 1: sounded like she was firing tungsten core penetrators rather than

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00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:41,680
Speaker 1: the explosive Dragon's Breath round she'd loaded during the assault

267
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Speaker 1: on roland Shack. That was probably smart. Are you going

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Speaker 1: to do something, Sardar asked. Roland could smell his fear

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00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:50,720
Speaker 1: wafted off him like a fine mist. He heard the

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Speaker 1: heavy hum of a suit mounted rotary chain gun, and

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00:13:53,160 --> 00:13:56,760
Speaker 1: then another incoming fire. A few rounds arced and ricocheted

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Speaker 1: off the body of the a PC Startar and Pedro

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Speaker 1: dough for cover and pulled Ryan with them. Roland didn't move.

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00:14:02,920 --> 00:14:05,480
Speaker 1: His hindbrain had plotted the trajectories of the errand rounds

275
00:14:05,480 --> 00:14:08,679
Speaker 1: as soon as they left their barrels. There'd been no danger, well,

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00:14:08,960 --> 00:14:11,240
Speaker 1: no danger to them. By the sound of it. The

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00:14:11,280 --> 00:14:14,240
Speaker 1: power armored Martyrs had pinned a Biggsby down. Roland could

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00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:17,720
Speaker 1: smell Nadine's blood in the air. She was alive but injured.

279
00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:20,760
Speaker 1: Will started to fire and pumped a steady stream of

280
00:14:20,800 --> 00:14:23,160
Speaker 1: explosives out in a high arch in front of the martyrs.

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00:14:23,560 --> 00:14:25,960
Speaker 1: Roland felt as the men scattered. He also felt the

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Speaker 1: footfalls of dozens of normal infantry two hundred meters behind

283
00:14:29,240 --> 00:14:31,920
Speaker 1: the power armored vanguard. He heard the rich thunk of

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Speaker 1: Recoilis rifles being bolted into the ground. Roland puffed on

285
00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:38,880
Speaker 1: his blunt as he considered the tactical situation. Bigsby and

286
00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:40,720
Speaker 1: his team seemed to have knocked out one of the

287
00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:44,160
Speaker 1: armored martyrs, but they were alone and unsupported. The STF

288
00:14:44,280 --> 00:14:46,520
Speaker 1: was in full retreat, and the small squad didn't have

289
00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:49,400
Speaker 1: the firepower or the chrome to hold off what was coming.

290
00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:53,600
Speaker 1: Roland did, but he very much disliked the idea of

291
00:14:53,720 --> 00:14:57,200
Speaker 1: murdering several dozen brainwashed idiots. These kids weren't responsible for

292
00:14:57,240 --> 00:15:00,760
Speaker 1: anything beyond buying into artful propaganda and law, he promises.

293
00:15:01,160 --> 00:15:03,400
Speaker 1: He didn't see them as worse than any other gaggle

294
00:15:03,440 --> 00:15:05,560
Speaker 1: of armed eighteen to twenty two year olds in the

295
00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:10,480
Speaker 1: history of war. Hey, Sardar, you got a wrench, Roland asked, what, Yes,

296
00:15:10,920 --> 00:15:14,680
Speaker 1: Sartar replied, can I borrow it? Um? The young mercenary

297
00:15:14,760 --> 00:15:17,440
Speaker 1: raised an eyebrow in confusion. It's not a sex thing

298
00:15:17,680 --> 00:15:21,760
Speaker 1: Roland has shared him. I never assumed it was, Sardar said,

299
00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:24,320
Speaker 1: then can I have it? Sardar stared at him for

300
00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:27,920
Speaker 1: a long beat and then said okay. He handed over

301
00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:30,640
Speaker 1: his wrench. It was nice, more than two ft long

302
00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:33,520
Speaker 1: and made from fifteen point four pounds of stamped steel.

303
00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:39,160
Speaker 1: This is perfect, Roland told Sardar. Perfect for what Sardar asked, wounding,

304
00:15:39,400 --> 00:15:50,240
Speaker 1: Roland replied, and with that he was off. Roland could

305
00:15:50,240 --> 00:15:52,520
Speaker 1: break thirty miles an hour at a dead sprint, but

306
00:15:52,560 --> 00:15:54,720
Speaker 1: with all the painkillers and weed he'd just taken, and

307
00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:57,640
Speaker 1: that didn't sound super fun. So he strolled along at

308
00:15:57,640 --> 00:16:00,440
Speaker 1: a brisk eighteen miles per hour, darted by will and

309
00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:02,880
Speaker 1: zig zagged his way past a few hundred errant rounds.

310
00:16:02,880 --> 00:16:06,240
Speaker 1: The armored Martyrs fired to suppress Bigsby squad. Two of

311
00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:10,280
Speaker 1: the big recoilist rifles fired their giant explosive tipped munitions.

312
00:16:10,720 --> 00:16:14,120
Speaker 1: Roland reached Nadine and Asame's position. The former was down,

313
00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:17,840
Speaker 1: bleeding from multiple gunshot wounds. Her lover fired from cover.

314
00:16:18,200 --> 00:16:20,760
Speaker 1: Roland felt as one of the explosive rounds arched towards

315
00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:24,040
Speaker 1: their position. The other was headed towards Bigsby. Roland's hind

316
00:16:24,160 --> 00:16:27,160
Speaker 1: rain guessed that Biggsby would survive the hit, Nadine and

317
00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:30,240
Speaker 1: Asame wouldn't. He jumped forward and grabbed them both while

318
00:16:30,280 --> 00:16:33,120
Speaker 1: still airborne, and the second before missile met masonry. He

319
00:16:33,200 --> 00:16:35,680
Speaker 1: threw them back out of the blast radius. He knew

320
00:16:35,680 --> 00:16:37,920
Speaker 1: the landing would hurt, but both women were chromed enough

321
00:16:37,960 --> 00:16:41,040
Speaker 1: to survive. After he tossed them, Roland slid to a

322
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:43,120
Speaker 1: stop on top of the pile of ruined bricks they'd

323
00:16:43,160 --> 00:16:46,320
Speaker 1: hidden behind. The rocket propelled munition hit about three feet

324
00:16:46,360 --> 00:16:49,240
Speaker 1: below him. The seventy five millimeter round contained a half

325
00:16:49,360 --> 00:16:52,400
Speaker 1: kilogram of hexagen, enough explosive power to tear a hole

326
00:16:52,440 --> 00:16:55,080
Speaker 1: in the side of a small tank. It detonated and

327
00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:58,760
Speaker 1: turned the pile of bricks into a shrapnel volcano. Roland

328
00:16:58,760 --> 00:17:00,880
Speaker 1: hopped again. His hind brain made it clear that he

329
00:17:00,880 --> 00:17:04,120
Speaker 1: wouldn't avoid all, nor even most of the shrapnel. Medelin

330
00:17:04,160 --> 00:17:06,560
Speaker 1: brick tore through his biceps, his gut, his legs, and

331
00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:09,960
Speaker 1: his pectorals. Most of the shrapnel stopped at the subdermal

332
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:13,440
Speaker 1: carapace that protected his vital organs. A few pieces went further.

333
00:17:13,720 --> 00:17:15,879
Speaker 1: They tore one kidney in half and pierced one of

334
00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:19,320
Speaker 1: his hearts. But Roland had multiple redundant backups for every

335
00:17:19,320 --> 00:17:22,800
Speaker 1: important organ. His medical nanites had already started to purge

336
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:25,080
Speaker 1: the foreign matter and repair the damage. When he hit

337
00:17:25,119 --> 00:17:28,679
Speaker 1: the ground, the battle high rolled in, and roland synapses

338
00:17:28,720 --> 00:17:32,080
Speaker 1: flooded with endorphins, serotonin, and enough morphine to kill a

339
00:17:32,119 --> 00:17:36,600
Speaker 1: middleweight elephant. The chemical elation of imminent combat filled his senses.

340
00:17:37,040 --> 00:17:40,240
Speaker 1: Roland wasn't just high on war. He was tripping balls.

341
00:17:40,800 --> 00:17:44,480
Speaker 1: Sweet shitting fox, I've missed this. Roland flipped a jaunty

342
00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:47,280
Speaker 1: salute to Biggsby as he sprinted forward past the man.

343
00:17:47,720 --> 00:17:49,719
Speaker 1: This time he let his legs pump as fast as

344
00:17:49,760 --> 00:17:52,920
Speaker 1: they could and rushed towards the five advancing armored martyrs

345
00:17:53,280 --> 00:17:56,160
Speaker 1: In the quarter second before contact, Roland had his first

346
00:17:56,240 --> 00:18:00,600
Speaker 1: solid look at the enemy. Their suits were definitely iteration

347
00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:04,080
Speaker 1: of the basic aries design. They had the familiar insectoid

348
00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:07,160
Speaker 1: helmet with its bulbous eyes and heavy nasal sensor blister.

349
00:18:07,600 --> 00:18:11,640
Speaker 1: The shoulders, chests, growing thighs, and shin were all heavily reinforced.

350
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:14,600
Speaker 1: These were breaching suits meant to lead in advance and

351
00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:18,280
Speaker 1: absorb an enormous amount of incoming fire. The armor was

352
00:18:18,320 --> 00:18:21,600
Speaker 1: painted the dull yellow of a Texas Grassland Roland could

353
00:18:21,640 --> 00:18:23,639
Speaker 1: see red and blue on the edges of the pauldron's

354
00:18:23,720 --> 00:18:26,680
Speaker 1: Republic of Texas colors, but the suits had clearly been

355
00:18:26,680 --> 00:18:30,240
Speaker 1: painted over repurposed by their new owners. Two of the

356
00:18:30,280 --> 00:18:34,120
Speaker 1: men had large white crosses daubed across their chests. One

357
00:18:34,119 --> 00:18:36,600
Speaker 1: man had a cross painted over his face plate. The

358
00:18:36,640 --> 00:18:39,800
Speaker 1: paint jobs seemed new. These suits had been captured or

359
00:18:39,800 --> 00:18:44,200
Speaker 1: handed over recently. Their wearers moved like competent fighters who

360
00:18:44,200 --> 00:18:47,400
Speaker 1: weren't used to the capabilities of full powered armor. Two

361
00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:50,320
Speaker 1: of the martyrs had shoulder mounted missile pods with angry

362
00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:53,680
Speaker 1: looking rockets inside them. Three of them mounted rotary chain

363
00:18:53,760 --> 00:18:57,800
Speaker 1: cannons between their targeting systems and reflex augmentation hardware. They

364
00:18:57,840 --> 00:18:59,919
Speaker 1: could have hurt him if they'd had their ship together,

365
00:19:00,800 --> 00:19:02,879
Speaker 1: but they didn't, and he hit the point man like

366
00:19:02,920 --> 00:19:06,120
Speaker 1: a bag of concrete thrown by a gorilla. Roland didn't

367
00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:08,360
Speaker 1: even bother to swing the wrench yet, He just let

368
00:19:08,359 --> 00:19:10,960
Speaker 1: his substantial body weight turn him into a post human

369
00:19:10,960 --> 00:19:14,399
Speaker 1: battering ram. The first soldier hit the ground, Roland atop

370
00:19:14,440 --> 00:19:17,240
Speaker 1: him with a whine of pistons and internal motors. He

371
00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:19,600
Speaker 1: tried to bring his AsSalt cannon to bear on Roland,

372
00:19:19,600 --> 00:19:22,760
Speaker 1: but the barrel was too long. Roland slammed Tardar's wrench

373
00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,159
Speaker 1: into the man's crotch eleven times in the space of

374
00:19:25,160 --> 00:19:28,200
Speaker 1: a second. The suit's growing armor was rated to stop

375
00:19:28,200 --> 00:19:30,919
Speaker 1: a fifty caliber rifle round. It caved in on the

376
00:19:31,000 --> 00:19:34,639
Speaker 1: third hit. Stop, he shouted inside his own mind, Stop,

377
00:19:34,720 --> 00:19:38,320
Speaker 1: you're going to kill him. Roland pulled back with considerable effort.

378
00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:41,160
Speaker 1: His brain wanted more in every impact fed a few

379
00:19:41,200 --> 00:19:43,920
Speaker 1: more endorphins into the hopper, but he managed to stop

380
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:47,320
Speaker 1: himself before he did a reparable harm. This hesitation made

381
00:19:47,359 --> 00:19:49,760
Speaker 1: him a target, though One of the armored martyrs shot

382
00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,600
Speaker 1: him four times and ripped deep gouges in his torso.

383
00:19:53,280 --> 00:19:55,920
Speaker 1: Roland rushed the man and slapped his weapon aside. The

384
00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:58,280
Speaker 1: drugs flooded into him again. As he swung his wrench

385
00:19:58,359 --> 00:20:01,640
Speaker 1: up underhanded into the poor fell lose chin, bone shattered

386
00:20:01,680 --> 00:20:04,720
Speaker 1: on the first swing. Biggsby fired. Roland felt one of

387
00:20:04,720 --> 00:20:07,320
Speaker 1: the other armored martyrs go down, knee caps and throats

388
00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:10,639
Speaker 1: shot out. The two remaining martyrs opted to retreat, but

389
00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,760
Speaker 1: it was a fighting retreat. They bounded backwards and launched

390
00:20:13,800 --> 00:20:17,240
Speaker 1: a flurry of rockets towards Roland. Discover fire. These he

391
00:20:17,320 --> 00:20:20,800
Speaker 1: had to avoid. Roland could eat small arms fire all day.

392
00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:24,639
Speaker 1: Rockets were not small. He shoved the wrench into his

393
00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:27,879
Speaker 1: waistband and threw himself into an elegant backflip. He may

394
00:20:27,920 --> 00:20:31,200
Speaker 1: be wanted to impress Bigsby a little. He landed fourteen

395
00:20:31,240 --> 00:20:34,000
Speaker 1: feet back from his prior position, and the same continuous

396
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:36,600
Speaker 1: motion he picked up two fist sized chunks of concrete

397
00:20:36,600 --> 00:20:40,000
Speaker 1: off the ground, flipped back again, and launched both improvised

398
00:20:40,040 --> 00:20:44,000
Speaker 1: missiles at the retreating martyrs. The rockets impacted one after

399
00:20:44,040 --> 00:20:46,840
Speaker 1: the other in spaces. Roland had been a millisecond before.

400
00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:50,200
Speaker 1: Shrapnel from the detonations tore at his skin and penetrated

401
00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:53,960
Speaker 1: his less critical organs. Roland's hind brain registered at least

402
00:20:54,000 --> 00:20:56,800
Speaker 1: thirty new injuries, none of them were serious enough that

403
00:20:56,840 --> 00:21:00,960
Speaker 1: he felt actual pain. He backflipped again, deaf finitely show boating,

404
00:21:01,040 --> 00:21:03,320
Speaker 1: and landed eight feet ahead of the last rocket and

405
00:21:03,440 --> 00:21:06,240
Speaker 1: right in front of Bigsby's fighting position. Right as he

406
00:21:06,320 --> 00:21:08,840
Speaker 1: landed the chunks of concrete head thrown impacted the face

407
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:11,879
Speaker 1: plates of both martyrs at around eleven ft per second.

408
00:21:12,560 --> 00:21:15,840
Speaker 1: That impact wouldn't be enough to kill men in Ari's armor, probably,

409
00:21:16,080 --> 00:21:17,840
Speaker 1: but it was enough to break most of their suit

410
00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:20,480
Speaker 1: sensors and shadow a lot of the bones in their faces.

411
00:21:21,240 --> 00:21:23,680
Speaker 1: Roland fixed Biggsby with an evil grin as the last

412
00:21:23,680 --> 00:21:26,600
Speaker 1: two power armored men staggered back, wavered on their feet

413
00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:30,520
Speaker 1: and collapsed. Son of Biggsby started to curse in a low,

414
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:37,680
Speaker 1: odd voice, because I'll be taking that nipple now. Hey, everybody,

415
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:39,960
Speaker 1: Robert Evans here. I hope you just enjoyed the chapter

416
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:42,440
Speaker 1: you listen to. I hope you enjoyed the chapters to come.

417
00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:45,119
Speaker 1: If you would like to read the text version of

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00:21:45,119 --> 00:21:47,520
Speaker 1: this book either on the web or on your e

419
00:21:47,640 --> 00:21:49,919
Speaker 1: reader as an e pub, you can find those on

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Speaker 1: the website a t r book dot com. So again,

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Speaker 1: the free ad free e pub and the text of

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Speaker 1: every chapter will be on a t R book dot com.

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Speaker 1: Thanks