new scene: the Dogs during the PK assault

Dogs – dozens of them – pressed close around Blue, Max, and Duncan. In privacy, with no humans present, they felt free to sniff the three returning travellers. Several others, at the perimeter, howled at the news of Rex’s death.

Finally Max barked loudly to get their attention, then shouted “Enough!” The room quietted – although one of those at the edge rumbled under his breath, the howl barely kept in check – and Max cleared his throat. “People! We can get reacquainted – and mourn Rex – later. Right now, we have to concentrate on one thing. The invasion.”

At that moment one of the smaller Dogs in the pack looked up from the slate he’d been surreptitiously glancing at. “It’s all over the media – there are shots of APCs rolling down the tunnels.” He paused. “It’s real.”

Max was annoyed. “Of course it’s real – I just told you. Now, listen up. John already told the Boardroom Group and they’re scrambling their militias -”

The runt interjected “Oh, good, so it’s -”

Max growled him into silence, then stared at him. After a moment the smaller Dog looked away and muttered “Sorry.”

“If I can continue?” He looked around the pack and got nods. “The Boardroom Group is scrambling their militias, but we have no data on how big the PK invasion is. Now, people, this might be it. Ragnarok. The end of the world. If the PKs win here, then we are all – ALL – dead.”

The room grew very quiet and still. Max let the fear weigh on them for a moment before continuing. “We are unarmed and unprepared.” He looked from eye to eye. “I blame myself. I should have -”

Someone in the pack yelled out “None of us expected this for years to come. You can’t -”

Max reitterated. “I blame myself. But just because I failed to see this coming doesn’t mean that we’re going to roll over on our backs. If we die today, we die fighting.”

A different voice yelled out “What can we do? It’s too late – the troops are already landing.”

Max barked. “No! Out on Farside, it was just me, Blue, Duncan, and Max against dozens of PKs. We were unarmed, and we killed them, and I pissed on the their corpses.”

Blue cleared his throat. “John was there too -”

Max waved the distraction away. “I don’t know if we’ve got days, hours, or just minutes. But we’re going to fight.”

Yet another voice yelled out “OK, so what do we do then?”

Max nodded. “Good question.” He turned to Duncan. “Duncan, you programmed the mules last time – grab a few others and buy all the mules you can find, anywhere in the colony. Pay extra – whatever it takes – and get them delivered. Immediately. Then start loading the software into them.”

He turned to a red furred female in the audience. “Aabroo, you’re good with CAD. Find some folks here who have mechanical engineering skills – let’s get some rifle stocks printed up that are short enough that we can use them. Rush delivery – we need them inside half an hour.” He paused. “And make sure that our fingers can pull the triggers.” He added one last bit. “And ammo. Lots of it.”

Aabroo nodded then yelled out “Anyone here good with machines? OK, yeah, Liler and Vance. Come with me.”

Max went around the room. One group was told to order steel plate and rent welding robots to fortify the doors. Another was told to call up archived designs for ANFO bombs and purchase lubricant oil, ammonium nitrate fertilizer, and small batch cement mixers. A third was sent to order food and water. As each task was delegated more of the crowd dissipated.

At the end it just Blue and Max remained, with a few stragglers in a loose circle around them.

Blue turned to Max. “Now what?”

“Now?” Max raised one eyebrow. “Now we hope that the militias manage to somehow pull out a win, so that we don’t all get killed before the end of the day.”

“Wait? This -” He gestured around the nearly empty room “- was all just a distraction?”

Max shook his head. “Not JUST a distraction. If we manage to live until tomorrow, this will mark the day we began to fight back.”