Distant thunder seemed to roll off the peaks of Callos IV, muted under the heavy cloud cover that had been forming for the last several days.  The thunder would be silent for minutes at a time, then five or six roiling echoes would sound down the steep canyon walls leading further back into the mountain fastness, sending the occasional small pebbles cascading down from further up the rocky slopes from the mile distant rumblings.

Must be at least eight main batteries up there hammering t. . .

CHAPTER ONE

Tacky mud pulled at Sergeant Jonas Vega’s boots as he trudged through the trench.  He wove his way past the beams that reinforced the carved walls and the ladders that stretched to the lips of the ravine, often pulling his gas mask carrier closer to his hip to slide through the narrower passages.  The soldiers perched atop the ladders didn’t offer a glance in his direction, instead keeping their eyes glued to binoculars that looked out across the fields above Vega’s . . .