Using his feet on the rock of the overhang to slow his descent, Jayne lowered himself down towards the Barracuda. The pop of a rifle behind and below him showed Indigo was watching his back, although it wasn’t likely to be long until the bad guys got tired of being picked off.

A shout made him glance down. Someone had seen him, and in the flash of movement he knew that same someone was bringing a rifle to bear on him. He bent his legs and pushed off from the ledge, dropping ten feet at the same time, but Indigo had seen. The rifle popped again and the scream indicated Indigo had been accurate. Still, it also indicated there wasn’t any time left.

He’d spent a hurried two minutes before starting this escapade to jury-rig three grenades into a single unit, and now he pulled them from the improvised sling around his chest, twisting the detonator of the first with his teeth. There was a hum, growing louder with each heartbeat, and he tossed it towards the top engine port of the Barracuda. Barely waiting long enough to see it slide inside, he began to climb back up the line as fast as he could, quickly reaching the overhang so he could use his feet, but it still wasn’t fast enough.

The explosion that shredded the Barracuda’s engine intake seemed to rattle the air, the shockwave pulsing through the rock and knocking him sideways to slam into the cliff face. His breath was forced painfully from his lungs by the impact even as he was showered with snow and stones, growing as the overhang disintegrated in front of him.

Trying to gasp air like a stranded fish he hung onto the rope, buffeted from below by further explosions and from above by the rockslide. His hands slipped down the line a dozen inches, then more, burning his palms, but he managed to grip harder, and even to pull his dead weight up towards the lip.

A large stone bounced off his shoulder, and for a long moment he wondered if the tree he’d used as an anchor might not come loose itself, sending him into the maelstrom below, but he fin