Kira ignored the interruption to the meeting as the FIST Marine walked up. “What will they try next?” Kira addressed the question to the assembled survivors. “What happened?” Gunnery Sergeant Elsadora Quinn whispered after she’d moved to stand beside Jess Robinson. The Marine medic was the only other surviving woman from the FIST drop. Three men had survived, a corporal and two PFCs. “Your boys found out that Vitalis don’t take kindly to visitors,” Tarn spoke up, his voice carrying from the other side of the campfire. “There’s only five of us that made it?” “Yeah, but that ain’t it,” Corporal Gresham Sampson said. “We missed the deadline so they launched the planned strike.” “I slept through a ground pounding?” Elsa asked. Kira was losing control of the meeting. She spoke loudly to draw their attention to her. “The atmosphere diffused the Marine energy weapons. Only two of the missiles made it to the ground and one of them failed to detonate. One shuttle crashed into the ocean and another onto the plain.
