Zhao Jie kept his eyes upon Zhao Chen's movements throughout.
Once the explosions had sounded, near enough every fighting post in the mecha camp went to first-degree alert, and every eye turned toward where the explosions were.
And some ten seconds after the explosions began.
Zhao Chen moved.
He ran forward, running straight for the mecha store.
But at that speed, Zhao Jie marked something amiss.
For the speed of it was nothing like what it had been when they were working their way in, and the manner of his running was very ordinary besides.
Crack, crack, crack.
And at this the fighting posts about them marked this man who had appeared all of a sudden.
And after a brief moment of staring, a storm of shot without number came down upon Zhao Chen.
And at this Zhao Chen had two more things in his hands.
Four smoke grenades,
which were of the gear the whole company had put together between them.
Four smoke grenades thrown out, and white smoke rose at once, and covered Zhao Chen's shape entirely.
But the close-packed shot was already sweeping into that white fog,
which the five, Zhao Jie among them, watched with their hearts in their mouths.
For had it been themselves, they would likely have been shot into sieves by now.
"It is our turn." Zhao Jie swallowed; he was anxious for Zhao Chen.
But he had not forgotten his own task either.
Having once been an ace of the interstellar marines, he knew very well that in a fighting task.
Whether a comrade be dead or no, the task as laid must be carried out, unless an order come from above.
And their superior at present was Zhao Chen.
So that their task… the bow once drawn, the arrow does not come back.
Five men, in three directions,
began working their way across.
Their movement was not so quick as Zhao Chen's.
And they sought cover without ceasing.
And because Zhao Chen was drawing the fire, the sentries within this camp never marked these five stealing along beneath their very eyes.
And while Zhao Jie worked quietly across, he did not fail, when he had the chance, to spare a glance for Zhao Chen's end.
Outside the white smoke,
a figure like a ghost had darted out already.
And the astonishing speed of it!
Left the curtain of shot behind him with no hope of catching him.
The whole of him ran as though he were laid flat against the ground; and at such a speed, a man in a personal exoskeleton combat suit might not have caught him either.
Was this the whole of his strength?
Zhao Jie swallowed.
But there was one barrier yet standing before Zhao Chen, which was the mecha store's outer wall.
Which is very thick indeed, and at the great door there are two sections of fighting posts besides.
To break in by the door would be to go against the curtain of two machine guns, with nine parts death in it to one of life.
And what no man looked for was that Zhao Chen chose the thickest wall of all.
He drew out that red light-blade Song Chen had given him.
And running low along the ground, he held the red hilt in his right hand.
And began to call up his own spirit-strength.
And the next instant the body of this light-blade came out.
A blade-body of scarlet red, like a flame burning.
And as the mecha store came nearer and nearer, Zhao Chen's right hand moved, and swept this flame of a blade from left to right.
And struck it clean into the mecha store's wall.
Boom.
One great roar of it!
And that wall of the mecha store, built of special steel and a full meter thick, showed a vast crack in it, as though it had been struck by a starship's main gun.
And that crack was exactly enough for Zhao Chen to spring straight through.
And in that instant, every soul at the fighting posts who saw it was dumbfounded.
What had happened just now?
One man… one man…
Under at least five fighting posts and five machine guns, had forced his way clean through, at a speed no man could own to.
Let alone the force of that one stroke that broke a wall.
It was past all believing.
"Just now… was that just now truly a human being?" one sentry said, swallowing, his forehead all sweat.
But there came no answer from his companion beside him.
He turned his head, and saw only that companion already fallen in a pool of his own blood.
And the next instant a dagger went across his own throat.
"A human being, assuredly. And your opponent." Zhao Jie, taking the moment while the enemy's wits were elsewhere.
Had come up to this high sentry tower without trouble, and destroyed the section here without god or ghost knowing of it.
Zhao Jie looked at that thick wall of the mecha store, cleft open, and there was nothing in his heart but admiration upon admiration.
For had Zhao Chen not worked so astonishing a stroke, he could never have stolen in so easily himself.
Zhao Jie looked toward the other two quarters.
Bang, bang, bang.
From one of the fighting posts came the sound of shots.
Zhao Jie knit his brows.
Could that task have failed?
By now no few of the camp's soldiers had gathered about, and were making for the mecha store.
For they had all had word that a man had broken into the mecha store, and they were urgently wanted there in support.
Zhao Jie knit his brows.
For if one of the three fighting posts had failed.
It would work a very great difference upon the covering task to come.
For being set high, Zhao Jie had understood at once why Zhao Chen had chosen these three places for his marks,
because these three places form, exactly, a triangle of fire about the mecha store.
And let any one of them be wanting, and a hole opens in that net of fire.
And at this very moment, the machine gun at that fighting post where the shots had sounded opened fire,
pouring out its curtain of shot, and striking those squads hurrying toward the mecha store.
And the enemy's soldiers fell one after another in that curtain.
For these soldiers had none of Zhao Chen's ghost-like gifts.
Seeing it, Zhao Jie let out a long breath.
And at this the other fighting post opened with everything it had as well.
By the look of it they had all of them succeeded.
Zhao Jie at once caught up a machine gun himself, and opened fire upon the enemy gathering below.
"Damn the lot of you! I have borne with you a long while now. Fetching me out to this back of beyond. Do you know I am due back for a marriage meeting!" Zhao Jie roared it out.
Nor were his words a jest.
For by the plan as it had stood, his leave fell a few days from now.
And it had been arranged for him to meet a young lady of one of the smaller houses.
Being a man of common family who had risen to be a senior colonel of the Alliance, to marry into some house of standing was beyond doubt the best course open to him.
And the whole of it, by reason of the enemy fleet's ambush, and that cursed impulse.
And this cursed planet besides, had been smashed to pieces.
And at this moment Zhao Jie vented his rage without the least ceremony.
And at the same time, at the other end,
a shuttle that had been hanging in the air turned suddenly and came down in a dive upon the top of the high communications tower.
The gun at the shuttle's forward end fired without a pause,
and knocked out the one point of fire upon the tower.
And then hung hovering above the communications tower.
And the soldiers sprang down, one after another.
"Every squad, carry out your own task. Take this communications tower! We shall want ten minutes at the least to get the message out!" Song Chen sprang down from the shuttle.
He led these soldiers, cutting their way into the tower.
To win a hope for their own road home!