Mike noted another checkpoint and looked off to the left. Somewhere out there was Asheville, awaiting the dawn of a new day, a city still inhabited by over a million civilians and six divisions of infantry. Behind it were two Sub-Urbs with a combined total of five million souls. And all of it was in the vise of a nutcracker.

He sighed and brought up a collection of tunes; a little music seemed appropriate at a time like this.

Might as well share the misery.

“What the hell is that?” Lieutenant Tommy Sunday asked as a strange keyboard melody started on the command override frequency.

“ ‘Don’t Pay the Ferryman,’ ” SPC Blatt said. The Reaper’s armor had a purple and pink holographic teddy bear on the front of it and when the music started, the bear jumped to its feet and began to dance, shaking its fat little belly in time to the music. “The Old Man must be really depressed.”

The Grim Reapers were the heavy weapons suits of the ACS. They were designed for long-range indirect fire or heavy-duty close-in support and generally carried four weapons (versus the standard one rifle of the Marauders). These might range from anti-ship heavy grav-cannons to long-range auto-mortars to flechette cannons capable of spewing millions of rounds per minute.

The Reapers’ suits were bulkier and slower than the standard Marauder suits, looking a bit more fat bellied than the “muscle” look of the Marauders, but given that most of their weapons had much higher ammunition bulk than the Marauders, that was all to the good. The flip side was that their armor was lighter, so getting into direct fights with the Posleen was usually a losing proposition.

“Christ,” PFC McEvoy cursed, rubbing at his nearly bald head. He’d detached the gauntlets of his suit and his hand made a rasping sound over the short, thick stubble. He leaned forward as far as he could and looked to the doors at the front of the compartment. “I hope it’s not that whole ‘we’re all a gonna DIE!’ playlist. If I hear ‘Veteran of the Psychic Wars’ one more time I’m gonna puke.”