Blood of Heroes (The Ember War Saga Book 3) by Richard Fox

dirt and grime.
    Hale pointed to the shelter. “It’s safe now.”
    “You’re…humans, I presume. From the Breitenfeld? ” a middle-aged-looking female asked.
    “That’s right. Where is the rest of your village?” Hale asked.
    The speaker shook her head. “I think we’re all that’s left.”
    “We can get everyone out in two Mules,” Orozco said. “Maybe one Destrier if the life support can hack it.”
    “Right now we don’t even have one Mule.” Hale’s gaze crept up the cliff face, the top obscured by haze and smoke.
    “How’d these civvies ever get to and from their capitol? I don’t see any landing pads or airstrips,” Orozco said.
    “There is, or was, a tunnel, leading from each settlement to New Abhaile,” Hale said. “Cut right through the planet’s crust, forty-five-minute travel time. Decent alternative when a hyper loop isn’t an option. Briefing I got said the Dotok blew all the tunnels after the Xaros hit the ground. Dotok were shuttling settlements back to New Abhaile. Looks like they couldn’t get to them all.”
    “Sucks to be that guy making those decisions, huh?” Standish said. “Who lives, who dies …guarantee there’s no right answer.”
    “There is always a correct answer to any tactical question.” Steuben walked over with Yarrow at his side. The medic saw the Dotok as they gathered at the end of the field of berry bushes and looked at Hale expectantly.
    Hale nodded toward the civilians and Yarrow broke off from Steuben.
    “‘You save the most,’ isn’t that right, Steuben?” Hale asked.
    “A worthy answer,” the Karigole said with a nod.
    “Philosophy aside, how’re we getting out of here?” Bailey asked.
    “We can squat and hold…or we send up a balloon.” Hale looked at Torni. “Sergeant Torni, we did bring an IR balloon, right?”
    Torni stood up and brushed dirt from her knees. “The IR balloon is specialist equipment, and I assigned Corporal Bailey to carry it as part of her kit.”
    Heads swung toward Bailey.
    “I was trapped in my turret, remember? You think I had room for anything but me in there?” she said.
    “So the balloon is a non-starter,” Hale looked back to the fire, on the other side of which was the wrecked Mule.
    “You mean this kit?” Steuben said. He slung a pack from his shoulder and handed it to Bailey.
    “Crickey! You saved Bloke!” Bailey unzipped the pack and took out the two halves of her sniper rifle. She hugged the weapon like a child with a favorite toy.
    Torni reached into the pack and found a rectangular box. “We’re in business,” she said.
    “With Bailey unable to extricate herself from the pod, and our rather abrupt descent, it seemed prudent to grab whatever I could,” Steuben said.
    “Prudent?” Hale asked.
    “Timely. Apropos. Inspired. Serendipitous,” Steuben said.
    “I know what it means, Steuben. Good work,” Hale said.
    “Sir, you want to come see this,” Yarrow said to him over the IR.
    Hale trotted over to Yarrow, who was wrapping a compression bandage on an elderly Dotok’s forearm.
    “What is it?”
    “Minor injuries, mostly. I can’t give them any drugs. Something as innocent to us as Motrin might send them into anaphylactic shock,” Yarrow said. He smoothed out the bandage and got a smile from the old Dotok.
    “That’s not why you called me over here,” Hale said.
    Yarrow touched his neck and switched off his translator. Hale did the same.
    Yarrow held up a dirty swab with blood congealed against the tip. Gray blood. Hale’s mouth went dry as the implication became clear.
    “I got that cleaning out a laceration,” Yarrow said. “I don’t have a DNA scanner, but I’d bet you a steak dinner that those banshees,” his voice lowered, “the banshees are Dotok.”
     
    ****
     
    Torni entered a message onto her forearm screen and waited for it to upload to the communication balloon. A green light blinked twice, and she removed a wire that ran from her gauntlet to the balloon