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.Grabbing the corner of the concrete block he heaved himself to his feetand darted across the opening between the two bits of rubble.He expected at any moment to hear the crackle of a railgun or the brief belchof a plasma gun before turning into a carbon statue.But they never came.Instead, a moment after his foot told him he had reached the concrete block,his nose told him that it had reached the piece of steel sticking out of it.Stifling a scream, Buckley fell behind the concealing concrete, clutching hisbleeding nose and waiting for his vision to return.* * *"I'm beginning to agree with you, Pruitt," Colonel Mitchell snarled."It'stimes like these that I wish we had some decent armor and direct fireweapons.""Well, we have a direct fire weapon, sir." the gunner said."One that wasn't a national disaster every time we fired it, son," the colonelreplied.It had taken the militia scouts a few minutes to reset their radios,but it looked like the back of the Posleen advance was well and truly broken.It had been at a terrible cost, though.Both Dillsboro and Sylva, even the bits that hadn't been destroyed by thepassing SheVa, were gone.God only knew what damage had been done to thebridge, the bridge that Eastern had specifically wanted to stay up.They'dtargeted the closest nuke so that the full "ground zero" effect would notencompass the bridge, but that didn't mean it was still tank-worthy.It wouldtake someone like MajorRyan to certify it before they could push much over it.On the other hand."Whenever the guys from the other side do get through, it will just be moppingup," Pruitt said."Mopping up Posleen is manpower intensive, Pruitt," Warrant Indy said."MajorAnderson was just going to 'mop up' a few Posleen after a nuke strike.""Time to find a better way," Captain Chan chimed in."I've got a great view uphere, but I'm about ready to get back to fighting.We need to figure out howto get these turrets in action.""Maybe after the repair batt gets here," Indy said." they ever get here."If"Let's just hope they get here before the remaining Posleen do," Reevespointed out."What Posleen?" Mitchell chuckled."I doubt there are four hundred alivebetween here andSavannah.I, personally, am going to go take a nap.Wake me up if anythinghappens."* * *Thomas held his hand up in front of him and squinted.Yep, he could sort ofPage 291 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlsee it, time to get back to work.The nuke had trashed his sight.He didn't know if it was the EMP or the lightoverload, but the sight was flickering like a bad TV.Which meant he had to dothe rest with iron sights.Okay, he'd grown up with iron sights.He could doit.If he could see at all.The moon was coming up, but it wasn't going to shine under the bridge.And thePosleen weren't making any light.What he needed was a flare down there orsomething.If he could just see to shoot.Finally he decided to just try putting one in the area to see what happened.The worst that could happen is they'd tag him on the return fire.* * *This time Buckley heard the crack from the ridge before the Posleen openedfire.Their fire was also much less directed; they seemed to be firing inevery direction.He hunkered down for a moment then used the disturbance tomove again.His vision wasn't really back; he still had much of his field of view blockedout by a negative image of his hands.He'd heard about "knowing something likethe back of your hands," but he seemed to have the inside of his handssuperimposed over everything.But he could sort of see and he sort of knew where he was going so it was sortof time to move.He squatted down and duck-walked to the end of the chunk of granite and thenpaused.When he stuck his head out he would probably be looking at Posleenfrom less than ten feet away.The question as usual was fast or slow.Finally he decided on fast.Pulling agrenade out of its pouch he pulled the pin and took a breath."Once the pin is pulled, Mr.Grenade is no longer your friend," he whisperedand leaned out.* * *Thomas pushed himself back up the hill and wiped at his mouth.That time aplasma round had impacted just to the side and a big chunk of oak had hit himsquare in the lips.He would be spitting teethfor weeks.As he leaned into the rifle, though, a grenade went off under the bridge.Inthe brief light from the explosion he could see three forms right in histarget line.He squeezed off a round then ducked back awaiting the returnfire, but the Posleen seemed to have a different aim.Pushing forward againand getting a good brace he started to hunt for more targets.* * *Joe waited for the expected flurry of fire to subside then leaned around theconcrete pylon and hammered off all five grenades in his AIW as fast as hecould pull the trigger.The Posleen were firing before he even pulled back,but over the racket of the railguns all the plasma gunners seemed to begone he could hear a Barrett punching out round after round.Pulling anothergrenade from his harness he tossed it in the general direction of the trenchas he reloaded.One more burst should do it.He jacked the first grenade into place and leaned around the concrete obstaclejust as the HVMround hit it.* * *Thomas closed his eyes at the explosion, but it was too late; his vision wasgone again.Blinking through the tears, though, he could see that the Posleenwere gone too.He wasn't too sure what had just gone off under the bridge, butthe north span had collapsed as well and was now lying canted to the west sideso he didn't have a shot at all.It looked like the whatever it was had blowndown the west, center pylon.Just smashed it in half.There might be Posleenunder there, but it didn't really matter; the road was so blocked it wouldneed a heavy engineering unit to clear it.Page 292 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThere was no sign of that last soldier and no fire from the Posleen.So hedecided it was time to limp his ass down there.He got to his feet, but hisknee buckled immediately."That's what comes of being old and fat and woreout," he muttered.He sat down on a tree and shook his head.Let somebody else take the pass.He'd just sit here till his leg felt like moving.EpilogueCally fit the last package in the rucksack and prepared to exit the cave.Cache Four was designed to provide all the materials necessary for just suchan escape and, after crying her eyes out and then sleeping, she had carefullyprepared for a long journey
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Tematy
IndexJohn Norman Gor 04 Nomads of Gor
John Norman Gor 01 Tarnsman of Gor
John Norman Gor 23 Renegades of Gor
John DeChancie Castle 07 Castle Spellbound
John Norman Gor 12 Beasts of Gor
John Dalmas Farside 01 The Lion of Farside
John Norman Gor 21 Mercenaries of Gor
Sienkiewicz Henryk Trylogia 01 Ogniem i Mieczem t.2
[Polish] Herrmann H. J. P. II zlapany sa slowo
Bester, Alfred Computer Connection