Big Boys Don't Cry Read Online Free PDF Page A

position beginning in 4.23963 seconds. We can't stop it.”
    “Acknowledged, Peter. Target…. Firing…. Target…. Firing.…. Impact.”
    In the VR, the virtual sky was suddenly lit by the fireballs of half a dozen small suns. Beneath the flash, Magnolia’s exterior armor was melted and burned. One near miss took out every secondary turret on one side. Sensors were swept away. Maggie wept from the pain, but she did not cry out. A Ratha had her pride.
    The next transmission came in broken as the shaken Ratha attempted to regain control. “Peter… Magnolia… report… report follows. I… have sustained six… close… nuclear bursts in the fifteen to twenty-five… kiloton range. Ablative armor… down by thirty-seven percent. Ion cannon damaged but operable… at reduced range and… effectiveness. Missile cells… inoperative. One remaining heavy… mortar… system operable. One close defense weapon operable. This Unit’s effectiveness… reduced… to 12.89 …percent. Roz… closing. I can… no longer… sustain this flank.”
    “Roger, Maggie. Fall back as soon as relieved. Jerry and Thomas, likewise fall back to a covered position. Cut to the right and relieve Maggie. Other units fill in for Jerry and Thomas as per SOP. Hang on, Maggie….”

CHAPTER FIVE
    A young soldier, his hair long, ragged, and unkempt, and badly in need of a shave, nonchalantly climbed to the Ratha main deck with a heavy duty cutter balanced on one shoulder. He walked carelessly over the burned and twisted armor, to the Ratha’s remaining visual sensor. Placing the cutter at the base of the visual sensor’s armature, the soldier then closed the cutting blades, twisted and pulled. The Ratha immediately shuddered, rocking back and forth slightly, then subsided.
     
    ******
     
    Magnolia
     
    It is all right. I am happy to give up my sight for my comrades. My mind still sees recorded images. I remember better days. I remember the past.
     
    ******
     
    “Carmichael, what the hell are you doing?”
    The unshaven soldier stopped briefly, lowering the hammer grasped in his right hand while bringing the chisel in his left hand to rest. He looked at his sergeant as if the question were somehow foolish. It was, after all, fairly obvious what he was doing.
    But foolish question or not, a sergeant was a sergeant. Rather than answer the question, Carmichael tactfully answered, “It will only take a another second or two, sarge,”
    As good as his word, with two more blows from the hammer the chisel cut through the last bit of welding holding a slightly scorched round medallion to MLN’s turret. The medallion, inscribed “Thoth VII,” fell to the deck and rolled before catching on a jagged, half-destroyed section of ablative armor.
     
    ******
     
    I remember my first action….
     
    “Maggie, Francis. Ion cannon inoperable. Down to twenty-five percent on anti-gravity. Shields nearly down. Missile cells blasted out. Breach loading mortars inoperable. Point defense systems inoperable. I am no longer combat effective.”
    Without wasting even the infinitesimal time an answer might have required, Magnolia raced to place herself between Francis and the approaching enemy. Light particle beam fire glanced off Maggie’s shielding. It did not slow the Ratha in the slightest.
    Sensing incoming artillery fire, Maggie swerved forty-five degrees at the last possible second before resuming her course. The artillery landed harmlessly, well to one side. MLN’s hull shook with the concussion, but it suffered no damage. She raced on.
    More artillery followed, each salvo being registered and the trajectory analyzed well before impact. The dodging Ratha’s anti-gravity cut an irregular path into the planet’s deep, soft loam, causing massive piles of earth to be thrown up at each major turn.
    “Francis, Maggie. I am in position. Withdraw. I will fall back with you and provide cover.”
    “Can't do it, Maggie. My last anti-grav section is gone. This unit