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shoot them up, then get behind that star. *Don't* get stuck out in the middle. And *aim*. Make every shot count."
Bean did everything mechanically. It was habit now to get in position, freeze his own legs, and then launch with his body oriented the right way. They'd done it hundreds of times. He did it exactly right; so did the other seven soldiers in the toon. Nobody was looking for anyone to fail. He was right where they expected him to be, doing his job.
They coasted along the wall, always within reach of a handhold. Their frozen legs were dark, blocking the lights of the rest of their flash suits until they were fairly close. Wiggin was doing something up near the gate to distract Rabbit Army's attention, so the surprise was pretty good.
As they got closer, Crazy Tom said, "Split and rebound to the star -- me north, you south."
It was a maneuver that Crazy Tom had practiced with his toon. It was the right time for it, too. It would confuse the enemy more to have two groups to shoot at, heading different directions.
They pulled up on handholds. Their bodies, of course, swung against the wall, and suddenly the lights of their flash suits were quite visible. Somebody in Rabbit saw them and gave the alarm.
But C was already moving, half the toon diagonally south, the other half north, and all angling downward toward the floor. Bean began firing; the enemy was also firing at him. He heard the low whine that said somebody's beam was on his suit, but he was twisting slowly, and far enough from the enemy that none of the beams was in one place long enough to do damage. In the meantime, he found that his arm tracked perfectly, not trembling at all. He had practiced this a lot, and he was good at it. A clean kill, not just an arm or leg.
He had time for a second before he hit the wall and had to rebound up to the rendezvous star. One more enemy hit before he got there, and then he snagged a handhold on the star and said, "Bean here."
"Lost three," said Crazy Tom. "But their formation's all gone to hell."
"What now?" said Dag.
They could tell from the shouting that the main battle was in progress. Bean was thinking back over what he had seen as he approached the star.
"They sent a dozen guys to this star to wipe us out," said Bean. "They'll come around the east and west sides."
They all looked at him like he was insane. How could he know this? "We've got about one more second," said Bean.
"All south," said Crazy Tom.