And they
were probably dead men anyway, at least if they executed orders. Which weren’t
much, actually, just to reach the top, find a place they could see, and stay
the hell down until opportunity presented itself. I hadn’t specified which opportunity.
That was something of the point. You can’t really know these things ahead of
time.
I sure as
hell hoped they managed something now.
“Right, keep
the disks hitched,” I told Ash. “Give us ten breaths. Follow my tail.” He
nodded and got doing, barking orders down the line.
“Valkyries!”
I turned on my machine. “To the Stair! Let’s see if we can’t climb faster than
the infantry!”
I went, my
eyes pinned on the center of the tiers. If ever there was a time, I thought.
And lo! As
we neared, with a great grinding sound the ramp in the center of the Stair
reared its blessed slope again, sliding up in segments. The earth shook. The
water shivered. But it made sense. Taking the control would create a window of
time, no more. For their stunt to mean anything, the stranded scouts up there
would have had to have had friendly valkyries near the bottom of the stair.
They’d been
waiting for me to show myself, after the fighting turned. Well, one can’t know.
And I was
back now. “Valkyries! Full speed!”
We left the
open ocean behind. The spray sang and salt air filled my lungs. One hundred
twenty breaths it took the ramp to cycle. Assuming they had killed whatever
bored squad had manned the switch to start with, add a few more for the Augers to
get there and do exactly the same to them. I let the line of the docks around
the wharf funnel us into the single column we’d need to take the ramp anyway, thirty
valkyries wide.
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