[Suggested song for this chapter – Heart of Courage, Two Steps from Hell]
The Rebel soldiers lay in wait for oh two hundred to tick by.
For Indy, Loveday, Arrie and Opal, there was no excitement, just hearts pounding with fear and silent prayers they and their friends would survive the night.
They had seen too much gore now to take any pleasure in battle.
The fresh recruits were mostly still bright eyed and bushy tailed. Arrie thought sadly that that would soon be beaten out of them…
Or maybe not if Niko and Baer were the blueprints. They seemed to maintain a kind of wild delight in soldiering, like they were cut from Viking cloth.
"Five minute countdown until the armoury goes up," she told her soldiers.
At exactly midnight, an absolutely massive explosion rang out through the previously silent night.
It was so loud that there could not be a soul in Squeaking Point, or indeed the surrounding townships, who had missed hearing it.
