He turned back to Merdith.
“Please, Ardo!” She wept. “Don’t leave me alone!”
“Thanks, soldier-boy.”
Ardo nodded, then hit the switch.
The gauss rifle responded instantly to his trained hand. The Confederacy had taught him well. His swiftly shifting aim kept the Hydralisks at bay and blew them clear of the SCV as well. As he stood there in the doomed yard, his sensations seemed heightened. The world around him was clearer than he had remembered it in years, perhaps clearer than he had ever experienced it. He took it all in: the horror around him that he was keeping at bay, the smoke over the compound that had turned to wisps in the lowering twilight. The sounds. The smells. All were alive for him.
Ardo was himself at last. He knew there was something that could never be taken from him: a victory more glorious and satisfying than anything experienced on any real field of battle.
As the last of his ammunition ran out, Ardo looked up. The transports, heavy with their precious human cargo, were arching into the sunset of his most glorious day. A hundred—maybe a thousand—cascades of thunderous exhaust climbed skyward. They would never know who had fought so hard for their lives. They would never hear his name nor sing songs to praise him. He alone would know of his triumph.
As the darkness closed over him, Ardo smiled at his last thought.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tracy Hickman is a New York Times bestselling author best known for his Dragonlance series of novels coauthored with Margaret Weis. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1955, Tracy now lives and writes with his wife, Laura, in southern Utah.
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