―With you, we can do this," Eric said. ―Felicia can assemble them all into a team for the

snatch-and-run; brass trusts her word. They‘re all old CMA vets. We‘ve been planning this for a long time."

―We‘ve been eyeing stuff like this on every op. Almost pulled the trigger on the mission we met you on," Felicia said. ―But there was too much going on and the bank was too far away from the action."

―But now that we found you, it‘s like it was meant to be," Eric said, looking into my eyes. ―This is the one. It‘s perfect."

Under the haze of alcohol, the team back together again, I felt like I‘d refound my family.

It was us against everyone.

I was scared, but I didn‘t want to let them down. I‘d fought beside them. Hell, I‘d been created beside them. We were a team. And I wasn‘t going to let them down. No matter what misgivings I had about this crazy scheme.

We had nothing left to lose.

War had stripped us of many things; made us hard, unflinching, dangerous. But it had forced us into a close bond at the beginning, and reinforced it when we‘d found each other again after all these years.

I didn‘t want to lose them again.

WE DIDN‘Tcome in by SOEIVs for this mission, but by Pelicans. They came out of orbit far from Covenant detection and then flew for hours until we reached the edge of our new combat zone.

The small city was in the center of a horseshoe-shaped range of small mountains. Its center plaza sat on top of where four mountain streams joined up to become the head of a strong river that trickled out the valley.

Our Pelicans came in low through a valley, just barely missing a rock ravine on either side as they flew up, over, and then back down, just feet over the ground. Risky, but again, the Covenant were none the wiser.

So far.

A hundred ODSTs fanned out through the city, clumping up temporarily to double-check weapons and strategy.

I stood in the middle of the plaza road and watched it all with Felicia and Eric.

Downriver the Covenant had thrown together a dam and dug in with a bustle of activity. Organic ships zoomed around overhead, and thousands of Grunts operated a constant hum of machinery that dissolved the ground.

We could hear the operations in the distance of the evacuated, eerily quiet city.

―Do you know what the city‘s called?" I asked.

―Mount Haven," Felicia said.

Two heavy machine guns had been mounted up on top of strategically located buildings in the city‘s center. Manned by two ODSTs, Amey and Charleston, both were picked out by Felicia, and there in case the Covenant decided to come sniffing. They also had rocket launchers at their feet for an extra punch if needed.

The other two members of that team, Orrin and Dale, stood with rocket launchers down the street.

Sita stood with Felicia, holding a BR55 battle rifle slung under her arm, and Teller, a pale, gray-haired colonel, lounged by a doorway with a pair of SMGs.

The eight of us were the base team, along with Eric in the Pelican with the Gatling gun in the nose making the ninth. This was base camp.

The other Pelicans were scattered around the edges of the city, ostensibly to reduce the chance of their getting hit by Covenant fire if things got hot; but it was really just an order by Felicia to keep them out of view of the city center.

Teams of ODSTs moved off downriver, and within ten minutes the city fell quiet.

Just the buildings around the river plaza and us, left behind to keep Mount Haven ―secure."

There was an empty Jim Dandy‘s restaurant nearby. City Hall stood quiet with its facade of marble in the shadows.

The stately, two-story bank stood there, waiting for us.

―Okay, let‘s go!" Felicia shouted.

Orrin and Dale set their launchers up against the side of the bank and rigged explosives on the bank‘s thick front doors.

They blew off with a surprisingly muted thump. Precise shaped charges. The duo was good at this.

They would be old CMA professionals that Felicia dug up.

―We have twenty minutes before the Pelicans will be getting ready to come back for the pickup,"

Felicia said as she led us into the bank. ―So everybody move, move, move."

Sita, Teller, Orrin, and Dale all ran with her. The next obstacle was getting a door down; Dale quickly wired it up.

Another explosion later and we were through.

―Think we can risk the elevator?" I asked.

―Backup power is running still," Dale said. ―It‘s a small pebble-bed nuclear reactor deep

underneath the city. It‘ll keep."

There were three more thick doors to blast. But there was no one to worry about the alarms we continually set off. So it all went fast.

The final explosion revealed a long tunnel with flickering lights, thick bars lining the rooms running along each side, with one final vault just beyond.

―Jackpot," whispered Teller. He licked his lips.

On my right I could see the glimmer of gold bars, stacked as high as my chest.

Each sub room was filled with precious metals. All here for the taking.

WE MOVEDquickly, using a motorized pallet dolly that just fit in the elevator. The first two sub rooms were cleaned out, and with each trip we deposited the gold bars into empty ammunition chests in the back of Eric‘s Pelican.

It filled up quickly, and there was a lightness in the air as we cracked jokes and imagined what we‘d do with our share.

The Pelican almost literally groaned with gold, and we had to move a Shiva warhead out to start adding a layer of chests full of gold to the walkway.

―Any more and she won‘t fly," Eric warned.

―There‘s just one more room. We‘ll get a few more chests in here, then we‘re done," Felicia said.

Back under the bank we detonated the door to the last vault. The lights flickered from the pulse as we opened the door, coughing and hacking from the dust that had been kicked up. Shadows filled the room, shifting and moving as the lights struggled to come on.

Then the lights quit flickering and steadied, and we realized that the shadows were still moving.

They were human-shaped shadows.

A hand reached out from behind the bars and grabbed at me. ―Are you here to save us?" asked a tiny voice, and I looked down into the large, wide blue eyes of a little boy.

―THANK GODyou came," said an older man, a schoolteacher who‘d been chosen to stay with the

children while the adults armed up and marched downriver to fight the Covenant.

That had been days ago.

The entire group was camped out in the last gold storage room, spreading out what supplies they had on towels on top of more wealth than any of them could have ever have previously imagined touching.

―We‘ve seen what they‘ve done to other worlds," Julian, the schoolteacher, said. ―We got as deep underground as we could . . . hoping maybe we could avoid the worst of it. The others had already left the city for the nearest spaceport. There weren‘t many children left by the time the Covenant actually landed."

They were not nearly deep enough. But I didn‘t say anything.

―Just hold on a second, sir, we need to confer a moment."

Felicia had frozen in the center of the hallway, but moved when I approached. ―What the hell do we do?" I hissed. ―We can‘t just leave them here."

―I don‘t know," she whispered back. ―But how many are there? What can we do?"

―We have a spare Pelican . . ."

She cut me off. ―Let me think. In the meantime, get those last three chests of gold up to Eric."

―And how are we going to explain that ?" I asked, a bit louder than I intended.

Felicia walked over to the open door that led to the room the children and their caretaker were in.

There were thirty of them, I figured, from a quick head count. ―Julian, that was your name, right?

I‘m Colonel Felicia Sanderson. I‘m an orbital-drop shock trooper. We‘re here under orders to retrieve the gold bullion, as part of the necessity to fund the war effort against the Covenant. You‘ll have to understand, these orders are our first priority. In the meantime, if there is anything you need, food, water, we‘ll provide that to you as we try to think about how to safely get you out of here."

―Thank you, thank you so much," the teacher said.

Dale and Orrin had finished loading the dolly.

I pulled Felicia back farther away. ―We need to call in extra Pelicans."

―Don‘t tell me what we need to do. We‘re going to load this last bit up, then we‘re going to see what we can get back to the ship before all hell breaks loose with the damn Covenant just

downriver. We‘ll give these guys food and water, at least. But we‘re not dragging them outside until I‘ve had time to think."

―Think about what?" Sita asked, joining us. ―You‘re not seriously thinking about taking them out?"

I was horrified. ―How can we not? These are children!"

―They‘re dead," Sita said. ―They were dead the moment they chose to hole up down here. It is only a matter of when, and how. The fact that we stumbled across them doesn‘t change the fact that we can‘t evacuate everyone off an entire planet. It doesn‘t work like that."

Dale and Orrin were looking up from the dolly as they guided it toward us, paying attention to our body language.

―What the hell is the point of being a soldier if we can‘t save anybody," I snapped. The worlds I‘d retreated from suddenly flashed through the back of my mind.

And then I thought about what Felicia had said. When was the last time I‘d talked to a civilian?

Julian was the first since the bombing that put Eric in a coma.

Maybe I‘d spent too long being removed from civilization.

Maybe we all had.

But I still had a heart. I still knew what was right and what was wrong. ―We can‘t abandon these children to the Covenant," I said. ―I refuse."

―If you refuse, that‘s a problem," Sita growled. She had her BR55 raised slightly. Orrin and Dale, still observing, looked ready to jump forward and back her up.

Felicia stepped forward slightly, trying to regain control of a situation going bad, and quickly.

―Shut up, all of you. We can save some of them, and just take less gold."

―How much less gold? How many of them will fit?" I asked. ―You willing to do that kind of bloody math?"

Sita finally raised the rifle up high enough to slide her finger into the trigger guard. ―I‘d relax a bit if I were you," she said. ―We‘ll do what we have to do."

―What we have to do is get them out," I insisted. ―We‘re going to have to leave the gold. The plan can‘t go forward."

Sita raised the rifle. ―No one‘s leaving any gold."

―Lower your weapon," Felicia ordered. Orrin and Dale had drawn M6 pistols, and Sita was

stepping back.

―I don‘t think Sita here wants any compromise," I said.

―Shut up, Gage."

I had my assault rifle up as well now. A real standoff. ―I‘m not backing down. I‘m a human being, not an Insurrectionist, not some damn, cold-blooded alien. I‘m not going to leave these children to die."

―What did they ever do for you?" Sita asked. ―When the UNSC was bombing civilians in the Outer Colonies, did they care about children then?"

―The Outer Colonies don‘t exist anymore, Sita," I said levelly. ―It‘s not about that anymore."

―The Colonies don‘t exist anymore because the UNSC wouldn‘t protect them," Orrin hissed.

―Really? All those Navy ships lost to enemy fire, all those friends I saw die out there, that was for nothing?" I moved my aim from Sita to Orrin to Dale. I couldn‘t bring myself to step to the side and include Felicia.

If she was going to shoot me, it was all over anyway.

The arguments the old Colonials made were ones that could sway us in an academic discussion over beers. But right here, right now, there were people that needed our help. And I was not going to turn my back on them.

No matter what I believed, or what I‘d seen, I knew where I stood on this.

―There‘s not enough gold in all the worlds to make this worth it. You‘ll wake up at night thinking about these kids you condemned to death for your own greed," I said. ―It won‘t be worth it."

―It‘s worth a try," Orrin snarled, and raised his M6 higher. I saw what was in his eyes.

It sounded like all the shots happened simultaneously. My body armor crumpled as it absorbed the shock, but I‘d gotten Sita first, as she‘d had the real firepower.

But M6 rounds from Orrin and Dale slapped me to the ground. I was bleeding from the arm, the leg, and a near miss by my ear.

―Felicia?" I called out, aching all over. I‘d seen Orrin slump over the gold bars, the red blood seeping in down between the cracks.

Dale lay still on the floor by the pallet.

―Felicia?"

I crawled over to her. She‘d drawn as well, on Orrin and Dale. We‘d been of the same mind, in the end. It would have been easy for her to gun me down.

She lay on her back, holding her throat, frothy blood pouring out of her mouth with each cough and attempted breath.

―Felicia . . ."

She grabbed my arm tight, squeezing hard, her eyes looking past me as she groaned through

bubbles of blood, then stopped.

―Felicia."

―Sir?" The schoolteacher looked around the edge of the vault door, his eyes wide.

―Stay here. For now, just stay here," I told him. ―I have to arrange how to get you out of here safely."

I limped toward the elevator, tears in my eyes.

IN THEback of the Pelican, my body armor stained with Felicia‘s blood, I unsteadily held my sidearm at the side of Eric‘s face.

―You remember when the bomb went off in the club?" I asked him.

He turned to look directly at the gun and me. ―Every day since I woke up."

―I remember being trapped in the dark, chest too constricted to scream, panting for what air I could get. And I remember it was an ODST who pulled me out. That moment, I don‘t think I could ever forget that."

―That why you joined?"

―Yeah." I nodded. ―Now I‘m on the other side, only I‘m there to steal the wallet off the guy in the rubble and leave them to die."