First Draft Excerpt of Work in progress

The first warning they had was the general alarm.

WARNING, MINTARA IS UNDER ASSAULT. DEMONIC FORCES AT LEAST TWENTY FIFTHS IN NUMBERS HAVE GATED ONTO THE PLANETARY SURFACE. MOST SEEM TO HAVE ARRIVED IN AREAS NEARBY BUT OUTSIDE MAJOR CITIES. SPACEBORNE UNITS ARE ENGAGED, PLANETARY SURFACE UNITS ARE RESPONDING TO INCURSIONS BUT ARE SIGNIFICANTLY OUTNUMBERED. EXPECT TO BE ON YOUR OWN FOR AT LEAST THREE HOURS. ARM YOURSELVES AND SHARE INFORMATION. STAY ALIVE!

"Evada, wake up!"

"I'm awake, Gorsh. I got the same announcement you did!"

"What are we going to do?"

"I've got a laser pistol, don't you?"

"Yes, but we've practiced what, twice?"

"Better than not at all! No reports of any fighting here in East Ridge."

"That's good. Do we have any spare magazines?"

"No. Let's see if we can find a converter program."

"Searching ... found one for our model, but it requires the specialty converter!"

"Better the specialty converter than nothing. Glad we bought the same model!" The small specialty converter began to hum, printing the capacitor atom by atom. The small flat module would fit in either of their hands. Within a few heartbeats, it was already mostly complete.

"Tell it to keep printing. I think we want as many as we have time for."

"No argument from me. Charge them up, too. We can always feed them back into the converter later."

"How safe are we?" They were on the twelfth level. Mintara was a comparatively new colony; the arcologies were small for the Empire.

"Looks like there's no such thing as really 'safe'. They generally move in strength with one of their noble caste gating their way. Anywhere from a couple sixties up to a square or so at a time."

"We can't fight off more than a few on our own. Let's see what the neighbors say."

"Looks like this Antara is a former Troop Corporal in Planetary Surface. She says walls aren't going to stop them. She suggests meeting up at the park on the next level, we can combine our firepower. She also says most of the combat demons are big; takes about half again default power settings to reliably put one down."

"Let's set them for that then. I suppose that means we won't get as many shots."

"About forty per fully charged magazine. How many we got?"

"Finishing the fourth one now."

"That'll have to do. Food and water might be good, and some warm clothes in case we have to go outside." Mintara was a cold world, newly settled. The Empire hadn't yet built orbital heaters to warm the planet up. "I'll make us up some Life and water." The regular converter began to hum.

"Yuck! Do we have to eat that?"

"It's nutritious, it's easy to carry, and it doesn't ruin easily, just in case. I don't like it either."

"I'll go grab our pockets."

"Got everything?"

"Food, water, body wraps, pistols, charged spare magazines."

"I think that's it. The body wraps charged?"

"Yeah. I did it after that last hike. Throw them in the pockets and let's go."

"Keep your pistol out. Might need it in a hurry."

"Right. Let's see if there are any programs so we can put them somewhere we can get to quick."

"Here's one. Adjustable holster, made of Nemourlon. Even has spots for the spare magazines. Looks like the regular converter can handle it."

"Well, we can afford a few more seconds. Print them out, and dig your magazines out of the pocket."

"Yes, let's do that."

"How do we put these on?"

"I'm not sure, but we can figure it out once we're there. Let's go."