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stamped his feet hard on the landing pad while he waited for the heating elements in his uniform to kick in.
He was beginning to think he should have found the time to give his uniform a thorough overhaul before
he came down here. It was long overdue, and Stasiak was coming to the conclusion he might have left it
a little too long. He shrugged, and rubbed his hands together briskly. He'd survive. Ripper, of course,
was taking no notice of the cold, and was staring out at the forest boundary with calm, thoughtful eyes.
Stasiak followed his gaze, but was damned if he could make out anything significant, or even interesting.
He sniffed loudly, and looked longingly back at the pinnace.
"Ripper, tell me you didn't just drag me out here for the exercise. Tell me there's a good reason why I'm
standing here in the cold, before I decide to batter you to death with a blunt instrument and dance a jig on
your remains."
"You don't have a blunt instrument," said Ripper, without looking round.
"I'll improvise!"
Ripper smiled, but still didn't look away from the forest. "You weren't looking at the sensor panels, were
you? According to the sensors built into our proximity mines, something or someone has approached or
crossed our perimeter in several places before falling back to the forest again."
"You're kidding," said Stasiak. "You've got to be kidding. If something's crossed our perimeter, why
haven't the mines gone off?"
"Good question," said Ripper. "Another good question might be why the mines' sensors detected a
presence, when the pinnace's instruments continue to insist there are no living things on this planet apart
from us. You've got to admit, Lew, it's an interesting place our Captain has brought us to."
"I'll give him interesting," said Stasiak darkly. He moved over to stand beside Ripper, and glared out at
the mists and the trees. "You know why he brought us here, Rip? Because we're expendable. We're just
here to test the water for him. And if anything were to happen to us, he'd just shrug and say what a pity,
and then contact theDarkwind and have them ship down two more warm bodies."
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"That goes with the job," said Ripper. "With being a marine. If you can't take a joke, you shouldn't have
joined."
"Just let me survive the next five months, and my contract will be up," said Stasiak. "And then I'll be out
of the marines so fast it'll make your head spin. I can't believe I landed an assignment like this so close to
getting free of it all. I'll tell you this for nothing, Rip: I'm not taking a single risk down here that I don't
absolutely have to, I'm taking this one by the book and by the numbers, with no volunteering for anything.
Whatever else happens on this mission, I'm coming back alive and intact, and you can put money on
that."
Ripper finally turned to look at him. "And what will you do then, Lew? Where will you go, once you've
left the Service? All you know, all your training and experience, comes from being a marine. There aren't
that many openings for a professional killer, outside the Service. Shall I tell you what's going to happen to
you? You'll go from one dead-end job to another, each more frustrating than the one before, breaking
your back every day for half the money you used to make as a marine. And finally, when your money's
run out and you're out of your mind with boredom, some shark with a big smile and a suit that cost a year
of your wages will sign you up as a mercenary for which he gets a nice commission, and you get to tour
the hellholes of the Empire. In the end you'll come running back to the Service and sign on again, just like
most ex-marines do."
"Like you did," said Stasiak.
"Yeah. Like I did. Get used to the idea, Lew. This is all there is for people like us."
"Not me," said Stasiak. "Once I'm out of here they're never getting their hands on me again. I've got
plans. I'm going places. I'm going to make something of myself."
"Sure you are, Lew."
"I mean it!"
"I know you do. I hope you make it. In the meantime, keep your eyes open and your head down. And
don't look now, but I think I just saw something moving out on the perimeter, at two o'clock."
Stasiak looked round casually, his eyes just happening to drift past two o'clock. There was nothing
there. He cut in his infrared implants, but no heat traces showed anywhere on the perimeter. He patched
into the pinnace sensors and studied their signals directly, but there was still nothing anywhere on the
boundary. He broke contact, looked at Ripper, and shrugged.
"Jumping at shadows, Rip. There's nothing out there."
"Yes there is. I saw it. Keep watching; it'll give itself away. It's at times like this I wish the Empire would
relax its ban on all but the most essential implants. I've seen stuff on the black market you wouldn't
believe; implants and built-in weapon systems that could make a man unbeatable in the field. Which is
pretty much why they're banned, of course. The Empire doesn't want its good little soldier boys getting
ideas above their station. They still haven't forgotten the Hadenman rebellion."
"Yeah, well," said Stasiak. "Those cyborgs were enough to frighten anyone. And I still can't see anything
out there. Maybe it's the Captain, on his way back."
"If it was, he'd have shown up on the infrared, wouldn't he? Though that's another question worth
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