The late afternoon sun grew close to the horizon. Along the fence enclosing the farm, farm hands crouched in hastily dug shallow trenches behind earthen berms, nervously clutching rifles and shotguns. The air was tensely quiet, save for an occasional murmur from one of the trenches.

In several trees along the nearby treeline, lookouts perched on braches, scanning the wooded areas leading up to the farm. The only sounds were an occasional bird or a faint murmur.

Crouched in a trench, Aldous yawned heavily. “Hey”, Reilly shook his shoulder, “wake up”.

“I’m good”.

“You get any sleep?”

“Couple hours”. Aldous pushed himself into a sitting position with his rifle. “Spent most of the night showing these guys how to rig traps”.

“They get it?”

Aldous stifled another yawn. “Some”.

Reilly nodded. “Where’d you learn how to set traps like that anyway?”

“Phan”, Aldous shrugged. “The little guy on Di-Yu, remember?”

Reilly snorted “Only thing I remember about Di-Yu is the job was more trouble than it was worth”.

“Like this one?”

“Well, we have to do this one”, Reilly huffed mockingly, “’cause if we don’t we’ll go the same special hell as people who don’t clean up after their dogs in the park”.

Aldous fought back a laugh. “That’s only for core planets”. He added seriously “But, yeah, I hear ya”.

In a nearby foxhole Gerrin crouched beside Auntie waiting for the imminent attack. “These guys sure are slow”, he mused.

“Well, they’re not too long on brains”, Auntie surmised.

“Hmph”, Gerrin huffed, brushing away a fly. After a few seconds he continued “You know, you don’t have to be out here – you could help run this thing just as easy from the house”.

“Nope”, Auntie stopped him, nodding towar