Boundary River

Augustus noticed that the engineers in orange-and-gray work uniforms were all quite young. Some of the insignia on their uniforms indicated that they were local conscripts, temporarily drafted into the Interstellar Marine Corps. These conscripts were usually refugees, and if the war went well, their service would last no more than two years.

The bridges and railway lines over the Paddick River had now been cut by the Kel-Morian. The Seven Sisters bridges, famous across the colony, had either been blown apart, their main structures sunk to the riverbed, or submerged beneath the surging waters of the rainy season.

For about a mile along both riverbanks, every building, lighthouse, dock, and greenbelt had been razed. In their place lay rubble, shattered glass, and sand kicked up by the wind.

On the south bank of the Paddick River were two brigades of the Confederacy's Interstellar Marine Corps, an army division, two artillery regiments, an armored division, and three Avenger squadrons. To the north was a Kel-Morian Ripper legion. The land across the river was covered with bunkers built by Kel-Morian construction crews around the existing structures, as well as sandbagged defenses.

Once they entered the construction site, Company Commander Warfield assigned tasks to each squad through the platoon leaders. He spelled out exactly where every squad member should be at any given time, what each person was expected to do, and who would be responsible for supervising them.

Augustus's squad was assigned to patrol the area about a mile around the construction site as scouts, guarding against Kel-Morian agents infiltrating the area. Every fifteen minutes, he had to report to the platoon leader over the communications system inside his Power Armor.

For the rest of the day, Augustus's 1st Squad carried out its patrols. Their route crossed a ruined part of the city, all broken walls and rubble. Walls had collapsed, bricks had split apart, and twisted underground water pipes lay exposed beneath the scorching sun.

This area had once been the city center's busiest commercial district, with skyscrapers and grand, ornate Rococo mansions belonging to the wealthy. Now, only a few of its most resilient buildings still stood. The best-preserved was a statue of the Europa Goddess, its body sheared off at the waist.

Augustus saw no one during his mission except men from other squads and platoons. When his patrol brought him near the Paddick River, he took out his binoculars and studied the river and the Kel-Morian positions on the opposite bank.

The Paddick River was still clear, as pure as the glacial lake at its source. But the picturesque banks and rippling blue waters were gone. All that remained for the world to see were ruins and a sorrowful river raging with fury.

In the circumstances, Augustus and the others could no longer see the stretch of the Paddick River around the Sisters Bridge, once a tourist destination that had drawn countless visitors. Sometimes, they could still hear fighter squadrons roaring overhead.

The river was wide, and Augustus's low-magnification binoculars weren't enough to make out the Kel-Morian defenses and weapons on the opposite bank.

Across the river stood the heavily armed Kel-Morian Ripper legion. Over the past three years, they had built curved fortresses and walls along the riverbank.

Inside the walls, which stood dozens of feet high, were missile towers, coastal guns, and pop-up machine guns. The Kel-Morians had concentrated their defenses on the stretches where the current was slower and crossing the river would be easier, turning the north bank into a virtually impregnable military stronghold.

Augustus often stared at the Paddick River, wondering how he would cross its swift currents and get his forces to the other side if he were in command of an army—and how he would bring the war to a definitive end.

By the fourth patrol near the Paddick River, night had fallen. The sun sank below the horizon, and Warfield ordered Augustus back to the new military camp under construction.

By then, the blood-red glow of the sunset had faded. The black mass of skyscrapers carved the moonlit horizon into a jagged line of sawteeth.

Across the river, on the north bank of the Paddick, hundreds of beams from Kel-Morian laser searchlights swept over the water and sky. Flares streaked overhead from time to time.

A few miles from Augustus's squad, a Terran Confederacy artillery position opened fire. Hundreds of icy blue points fell across the river, and the electromagnetic pulses from their explosions lit up a patch of the night sky.

When he returned to the construction site, Warfield immediately sent Augustus alone to a garage built from prefabricated Plasteel panels. His unit would remain under the direct command of company headquarters.

Augustus had assumed there was some mission that needed to be explained in person or a meeting of officers to attend, but he soon realized that the other officers had all stayed at their posts.

Warfield didn't beat around the bush. "Your brother arrived on Turaxis II yesterday. The division headquarters isn't far from here. He just told me over the phone that he hasn't seen his little brother in seven or eight years, and asked me to bring you to him."

"Arcturus? Ah—that's great. I really want to see him soon." Augustus had no desire to see his brother.

Warfield then ordered his new adjutant, a gunnery sergeant, to take temporary command of 1st Company and have them continue their assigned tasks.

Augustus drove again this time. He and Warfield got along quite well now. Because of Augustus's brother, Warfield had come to see him as a younger brother, and he also genuinely liked the young man's toughness and courage.

In Warfield's eyes, Augustus was clever, and what was most impressive was that he put his intelligence to good use. He was also considerate and caring, qualities that made him easy to like.

In some ways, Augustus reminded him of his brother.

An hour later, Augustus drove Warfield's Sabre Command Vehicle into a district filled with skyscrapers dozens or even hundreds of stories tall. Beyond them stretched lower buildings and open views.

The area had once been Pride of Boke's largest stadium, next to an amusement park, a zoo, and a civic square. About a regiment of engineers was using space-construction vehicles to build orderly rows of modular barracks across the cleared open ground.

The Sabre Command Vehicle drove between the towering buildings. At the heart of the skyscraper district, one of the towers was still lit.

It wasn't blazing with light, but bright illumination could be seen on floors where the glass remained intact. That meant there was probably a gas-powered generator in the skyscraper's underground garage, with installed power cables buried below ground.

Outside the skyscraper, roadblocks and checkpoints had been set up within five hundred yards. At least a platoon of marines from the 33rd Ground Assault Division guarded the building.

The marines said nothing. They held their Gauss Rifles and stared straight ahead. Scratches marked their silver-gray Power Armor, long scars that looked deep enough to expose bone. They were traces of severe damage, repaired and then covered with layer after layer of fresh paint in an attempt to hide the wounds.

Although this clearly violated Article 144 of the Power Armor Modification and Maintenance Regulations, some suits bore private graffiti and paintwork alongside the 33rd Ground Assault Division's insignia. Some were elaborate, others crude. Most showed parts of a wolf—a claw, an eye, or a fang. Some were even wilder: the full skeleton of a wolf with its bones bleached white, or a naked woman.

This meant that the men were either veterans who had deliberately kept the marks to show how battle-hardened they were, or local planetary defense troops from the Edge Worlds who couldn't even get proper Power Armor supplies and had to make do with constant patchwork—or perhaps both. These garrisons often called themselves the unwanted stepchildren of the military.

There were no rank insignia on the guards' Power Armor. They stood rigid as statues, like stone lions before a temple.

Thanks to Atago's favorite person; I'll always love Slokai; and thanks to Mengxin Rabbit for the monthly ticket and Agent Rongrong for the reward.