22
Laser fire sizzled through the air a second after the flashes lit up the forest. Austin recoiled at the spitting rifles, remembering the last time he heard fire at such close range. Energy weapons firing in the atmosphere, up close and personal, screeched in a way they did not in the vacuum of space. It sounded like the air itself caught fire.
He looked back at the troop carrier nestled at the river’s edge. A squad of Imperial Marines remained on guard. More soldiers moved around inside the troop carrier, probably to provide orders and cover fire to those now engaged in the forest, battling the two hidden Serpents positioned down the canyon. The remaining Zahlian forces disappeared into the vegetation. Towers had said the troop carrier could transport fifty to one hundred soldiers, an
