he air."

Songa got into the co-pilot's chair as Jason got the engines going, and he pulled the ship up off the ground and retracted the landing skids. He ascended vertically, taking it up several thousand feet, then he turned and started a sub-orbital arc that would drop them in Nebraska. He had to stop there before going on to the mountain.

"And that's that," Jason said, looking back at the two. Ian looked almost hyper, he was so excited, and his mother was very pensive, looking out the front window with a sober look on her face. "Welcome to the Legion. I don't think I ever caught your first name, Miss Fletcher."

"Molly," she told him.

"Molly. I'm Jason Fox, and this rather dashing lady sitting in the other chair is Songa," he introduced. "She's one of our doctors."

"Why is a Faey helping the rebellion?" Ian asked.

"Because I'm a doctor," she answered simply. "Faey doctors never take sides, dear. It's part of our oath. We never take sides, dispensing medical aid to anyone in need. We serve whoever needs us. Jason's people needed doctors, and so me and my husband are here to fill that need." She grinned at him. "We're not actually _in_ the rebellion, dear. Doctors are never part of other organizations. I do help Jason out from time to time because I think he's doing the right thing, but it's not _official_."

"But he's fighting your own people," Ian protested.

"_My people_ make many mistakes, dear," she said simply. "Sometimes we can be very cruel. What House Trillane is doing here on Earth is wrong, and someone has to put a stop to it. That's why I support what Jason and the others are doing."

"I didn't realize it was so bad," Molly Fletcher mused. "Things seem, well, alright to me."

"You haven't seen what's going on where Trillane doesn't let people see, Molly," she told her evenly. "They've done things that could get the entire noble house thrown in prison and Grand Duchess Trillane executed, if the Empress had proof of it."

"Wow," Molly Fletcher breathed.

"Wow indeed," she nodded in agreement. "That's why my husband and I bend our oaths of neutrality where this rebellion is concerned. A third doctor that's with us, Yohne, she's not quite so enthusiastic about it as we are, but then again, her oaths would never let her give the rebellion away or harm them. Sometimes, neutrality also requires silence."

"Hearing it from a _Faey_, it puts a whole new spin on it," Molly said, mainly to herself.

"I know," Jason told her with a nod. "We're not very large, and it's very touch and go. I may have pulled you out of the frying pan and into the fire, to be honest. We _are _about to start a war with them, after all. But at least with us, you have a chance. It's not a guaranteed future we can offer, but at least we can offer _hope_."

"That's something for me to think about, I suppose, as I get used to the idea of this," she sighed.

"I can't wait! Do I get a gun? When do I get to go on a raid?" Ian asked breathlessly.

"Woah, tiger," Jason chuckled. "Let's focus for right now on getting you two home and getting you a new wardrobe, some rooms, and a hot meal. I'm afraid that around the mountain, food is more or less your own problem."

"You don't serve meals?"

Jason shook his head. "Everyone's on different schedules. We have a kitchen, so everyone just basically cooks for themselves. As long as they keep the kitchens clean, it's all good."

"Now that's something you shouldn't be doing. People won't eat right if they're just whipping up whatever," she declared.

_Uh oh, I don't like where this is going,_ Songa sent to Jason in concern.

_If it makes her happy, she's welcome to it. This is a shock for her, hon... if she gets involved with the idea of running the kitchen, it'll be a good release for all the worry._

_True._

"Mom manages a restaurant," Ian told them. "She runs the Wendy's down on 104th."

"Not anymore," she sighed.

"Don't worry, we can find something for you to do," Jason told her. "They always need hands down in the shop. And if you can sew, they'd love your help over in the warehouse. We, lost, just about everyone that can sew," he said, bowing his head.

"That big explosion out in the forest?" Ian asked. "They said you did it on purpose on the news!"

"_They_ did it," Jason grunted. "And we lost nearly three quarters of our people in it. The only ones who survived were the builders who were in another town, getting it fixed up, so we lost just about everyone who was good at sewing."

"What exactly happened, Mister Fox?" Molly asked.

"Call me Jason, and it's a long story."

"This flight won't be short, will it?"

Jason chuckled. "I guess we have time."

Jason told Molly and Ian most of the story about how they got started, from his arrival in Chesapeake to their move to Colorado. He explained about the exomech, and how Steve had detonated its power plant when it became clear that the Faey were there to murder the entire town. Steve had known that no one would get away, so he made sure to take all the Faey with them. He told them about what they'd been doing so far as far as the war was concerned. "Since we don't have enough fighters to sustain any kind of heavy action or big raids, we're focusing on building robotic devices that do our fighting for us," he explained. "We can't really take any big bites out of Trillane, but that's not really our strategy given our resources and their size. Our strategy is to attack the non-military transports called Sticks, because they're very easy to bring down. They're cheap and as plentiful as grains as sand on the beach, but after we blow enough of them up, it's going to start costing Trillane real money. We're trying to make it so _expensive_ to run the farms here on Earth that they willingly leave and let another house come in to take over, one that will treat us with dignity and respect. Right now, we're setting up to conduct our first manned raid against Trillane. It's only going to be about nine people sneaking into a small armory in Canada, where we're gonna steal anything we can use, then blow it up."

"It seems like a risk to hang everything on that one thing," Molly said. "What if they find a way to stop you?"

"We have other approaches," Jason nodded. "There are other things we can do to keep adding more and more to the bill, and then there's always just aggravating the hell out of them just for the sake of it," he chuckled. "I've been giving the Baron of North America reason not to sleep well at night here for the last couple of weeks. It serves no other reason than to annoy him, but it's just as effective as attacking Sticks." He started slowing as they approached Vultech, and Jason extended the landing skids as the doors opened. "We've tossed around several ideas, but the main thing is to keep adding to the price tag that comes with owning Earth," he added as the skimmer touched down inside the warehouse lightly. "And here we are at our first stop. If you'd be so kind as to just wait here you two, we'll only be here for a couple of minutes. I'm just here to pick something up."

"Where are we?" Ian asked, looking out his window with keen interest.

"Someplace you'll learn more about when you get to our base," Jason told him bluntly.

"It's good to see that you thought to have more than one base," Molly said. "If they ever found your mountain, you'd be in big trouble."

"That's something we're planning for right now," Songa told her with a smile, turning her seat so she could face them. "We know that it just takes one person getting lost and getting caught by the Faey to give our base away, so we're making several secret bases that only a few people know about, so nobody can give them up. After all, they won't know about them, and you can't give away anything you don't know."

"I wondered how you dealt with that, with your people being telepathic and all."

"Easily, we use our own telepaths," she smiled as Jason opened the hatch and went down to where Rann and Kumi were standing, waiting for him.

_Your E-suits are here and ready,_ Kumi told him. "Bo, get those E-suits on the skimmer!" she called to Mark Bowman, but everyone called him Bo.

"You got it, Kumi!" he shouted, and started towards the skimmer.

"Stick it in the cargo hold, Bo!" Jason called to him. _Jys and the rest of the class! We're going back!_ he sent so it would be heard all over the warehouse, but not an inch outside the walls.

_Ah'm stayin' over heah 'til tomorrow, sugah, Temika told him. Charleston called an' they need some stuff. Me an' Kumi are gonna get it all bought and packed, and then we'll fly it out to 'em tomorrow. We need to bring over the dropship tomorrow so we can take it out to 'em._

_I'm in the bathroom, I'll be right there, she answered._

_Tim and Symone caught a ride back in the dropship, Rann told him. Luke brought it over to drop some supplies off for Charleston. He was going to take it the rest of the way, but they need to buy some other stuff, so they decided to just hold it here and take it all in one trip tomorrow._

_Alright. Rann, go take a seat in the skimmer, and introduce yourself to our two new members, he sent._

_Ah, so the boy agreed to come then?_ Rann asked.

_Both him and his mother,_ he nodded in response. _The boy's hyper, but his mother's pretty sharp._

"Afraid not, dear, I'm staying here tonight," Songa's voice came from the door as she appeared in the hatch, looking back. "My husband Rann is going back to our base, he can explain anything you'd like. He's a sweetie, you'll like him."

Songa and Rann enjoyed a quick embrace and kiss at the base of the stairs, sending privately to each other, then Rann scurried up the stairs and into the skimmer. _Don't take the copilot's chair, Rann!_ Jason warned.

_I won't!_

_Is that going to be mine? Jyslin asked as Bo brought the box up to the cargo hold, then stopped and waited. The stealth field was still going, and he knew better._

_Rann, open the cargo door while you're in there. You know how, don't you?_

_Of course I do, Jason, Meya's already gone over the controls in the class I attend. The stealth will disengage from the door when I open it, right?_

_Yeah, just open it._

_Opening it now. The cargo door's stealth melted away, and it began to open._

_No, love, you're flying us home, Jason told her. And I'm not going to say a word. It's a virtual solo._

_Words no, but I'll get lots of dirty looks, she teased as she appeared in the office door._

Kumi laughed, and Songa just smiled at Jason slyly.

"Your box is stowed, Jayce! She's ready to go!"

_"Thanks, Bo," Jason called to him. Close the door, Rann._

_Closing it now._

_Alright, I'm ready, Jyslin told him as she reached them, holding her hand out to him. Jason took it, and held it gently as she came up to him. You need anything from home, Kumi?_

_Naw, I'm set. I would like you to bring Fure over either tonight or tomorrow, though._

_We can manage it tonight, I think. Jyslin can make it her solo flight, she can bring him over and then come back, all by herself._

_An hour alone with Fure? Thanks, she sent sourly._

_He's not that bad, Kumi sent defensively. He's just not very comfortable around you guys. He's a nice guy in private._

_Well, he needs to loosen up some, Jyslin told her._

_Yeah, I noticed. I'll pop his cork later, that's why I want him over here. Nothing a couple of hours between my legs won't fix._

_He's all yours, Jyslin told her._

_That was more than I needed to know,_ Jason sent dryly. _Let's go, love, so you can ferry Fure over in plenty of time before sunrise._

Inside the skimmer, Rann was already making Molly smile, and Ian kept staring at him in curiosity. "Molly, Ian, this is my fiance, Jyslin," Jason introduced as she came up the isle between them.

"You're marrying a _Faey_?" Ian gasped.

"You bet your booty he is, youngster," Jyslin declared. "I worked my butt off to get him, he's not getting away from me now."

"She's a member of the resistance," Rann explained when Molly gave her a startled look. "There's nine of us, you know. Jyslin, Symone, Kumi, Meya, Myra, Fure, Yohne, Songa, and myself. Proof that not all Faey are _Faey_, if you get my meaning," he said with a warm smile.

"I'm starting to see that," Molly nodded.

_The boy has talent, Jyslin sent to him almost immediately after taking the pilot's seat. He'll be weaker than the other humans, but he'd be about average for a Faey woman. Stronger than a man._

_I wasn't sure how strong he's going to be._

_When you want a professional opinion, call in a professional, she sent with a wink, the she closed the hatch, retracted the stairs, and started prepping the ship for takeoff._

"I must say, Miss Jyslin, it's nice to see a Faey with hair color that looks _normal_," Molly told her.

Jyslin laughed. "Actually, my hair color is _abnormal_," she told her. "Red hair is unusual for a Faey. Blond and white are the most common."

"The blondes I've seen don't look very common," Molly said. "At least not naturally. That's what we'd call a peroxide job at work," she said, pointing out the small port window by Ian's seat, pointing at Kumi and Songa. Both of them had blond hair, though Kumi's platinum blond was much lighter, almost white.

"That's about normal," Jyslin told her. "The darker the hair, the rarer it is. The ones that'll turn your head are the ones with black or dark brown hair. My red hair makes me stand out, because it's so dark," she chuckled.

"I saw a Faey with green hair once," Ian blurted.

"That's not uncommon," Jyslin told them.

"Not at all, my mother had hair the loveliest shade of emerald," Rann agreed. "It looked like a shimmering gem when it moved."

Jason strapped himself into the copilot's chair, and Jyslin took the controls in her hands. She glanced at Jason, but he just laughed. "Oh, no, this is all you," he told her.

"Thanks," she grunted, doublechecking all the indicators, then she picked the ship up off the deck and backed it out of the open doors. She turned the ship even as she lifted it up over the building, then started a smooth acceleration in a pilot's arc that would bring them back down right at the mountain. Jyslin had learned how to fly quickly, and she was actually rather good at it.

"There, how was that?" she asked.

"Very smooth," Jason told her.

"Jyslin is Jason's student," Rann explained when it looked like Molly was about to ask what that meant. "Jason is one of the three licensed pilots in our group, and they're teaching the rest of us how to fly."

"Oh, that explains it," Molly chuckled. "I was wondering why she was asking him. I would've thought it would be the other way around."

"I grew up in a plane," Jason told Molly. "When I was kid, when other kids were playing baseball out in the park, my dad had me behind the controls of a Cessna. He was an Air Force fighter pilot. After the subjugation, after I came into a little money, I bought this airskimmer, and learned how to fly it. It's been a godsend," he said sincerely.

"Ian's father was a commercial pilot," she told them. "I'm afraid he passed away several years ago."

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry to hear that, Molly," Rann said sympathetically.

"Did he give Ian any lessons?" Jason asked.

"Of course he wanted to, but in New York, Ian couldn't get a training permit until he was 12, and Terry died a year before Ian's 12th birthday."

"Well, that's official, Molly. My dad had me in the pilot's chair before I even took my first test," Jason chuckled.

"Yeah, my dad let me fly a plane a few times," Ian told them. "He didn't give me any real lessons or anything like that though. It was lots of fun!"

"Why are you asking, Jason?"

"Because both of you are going to learn how," he told them. "_Everyone_ in the mountain needs to learn how to fly, even if you never use it. Just in case."

"Oh dear. I hope it's not that hard."

"Not in skimmers, hon," Jyslin assured her. "If you can drive a car, you can fly a skimmer. It's really easy. A lot easier than I thought it'd be."

After an hour of pleasant conversation, where Rann had more or less captivated Molly Fletcher and Ian refused to sit still or ask any question that crossed his mind, the dark silhouette of Cheyenne Mountain appeared ahead of them. "Alright, here we go," Jason said, buckling his seat restraints. "Everyone buckle in. This is always a little choppy."

"We're gonna land?"

"In a manner of speaking. Just look out the windshield and you'll see. This is how we keep our base a secret," he chuckled.

Jyslin lined up on a low approach to the small tunnel that led to the hangar, and Molly Fletcher realized the truth of it immediately. "That tunnel? It's _too small_ for a ship to go in!"

"Trust us, Molly, we have it rigged. But there's a moment of turbulence when we hit our gadget that lets us go through, so be ready for it."

Jyslin flew towards the tunnel with a steady hand, decelerating with her approach. The minimum speed for this was 15 knots, for the bubble didn't encapsulate the skimmer, it instead was like a soap bubble ring... it set out the soap film, and the skimmer was like someone blowing air through it. If there wasn't enough pressure, no bubble. Well, with the skimmer, if it wasn't going fast enough, it wouldn't get completely in the bubble, and that would cause it to rebound the ship back out. So, a ship had to be doing a minimum of 15 knots, or about 19 miles an hour, when it hit the bubble, or the ship wouldn't be pulled in. That wasn't very fast, but when one noted that there was _nowhere_ for the ship to go if it missed, then the reason it could make a neophyte pilot nervous was clear. If you were too far off and missed the bubble completely, then the skimmer would run into the mountainside. If you were going too slow, the ship hit the bubble skin, push in, have insufficient kinetic energy to cause the bubble to form, and then would bounce back. But Jyslin had everything right where it needed to be, and she was in the safe speed window that Jason had decreed for this maneuver, a velocity between 15 and 19 knots. If one was going _too_ fast, then the issue was getting the ship safely stopped in the small hangar on the other side. So, after a little math, Jason found that the optimum speed for the bubble was 17 knots, which gave one plenty of time to stop once inside. She was using the skimmer's navcom to line her up with her target point, and wasn't looking out the window. Her eyes were glued to the screen just over the control stick, and she kept the ship lined up perfectly with a red *X* on that screen. That mark was the center of the bubble.

There was a jolt when the skimmer was encapsulated in a bubble of stretched space, which was the trigger that caused Jyslin to neutral the throttle. The ship's engines didn't work in the bubble. The view out of the windshield suddenly distorted and elongated, like a special effect from a sci-fi movie. Then with a snap, the distortion whipped forward at a speed that made Molly and Ian gasp and flinch, and after another sudden shake of the skimmer, they were in the hangar. Jyslin reversed throttle, causing the skimmer to quickly slow in the underground hangar, and then turned the ship, moved it sideways about fifty feet, and landed it gently and expertly in its assigned parking spot by Vultech-1, which was in the hangar.

"And here we are. Welcome to the secret base of the Legion," Jason announced. _Fure,_ Jason sent strongly.

_Yes, Jason?_

_Kumi needs you in Nebraska. Grab a bag, Jyslin's gonna take you over._

_I'll be down in a few minutes, he answered._

_Tom, come to the hangar,_ Jason sent in the manner that would allow anyone to hear him. It was an open sending, with just enough power to reach to any distant nook of the mountain, wherever Tom might be. _Your E-suits are here, and I need you to assign some living quarters to two new recruits._

"I'm on the way, Jayce," Tom's voice called over the intercom.

"Wow, I _heard_ that inside my head!" Ian gushed. "You really are a telepath!"

"Was there any doubt, youngling?" Jyslin laughed.

"Well, I _was_ wondering," Molly admitted. "Anyone can claim to be anything they want, but there's proof in the pudding."

The three telepaths helped Ian and Molly unbuckle, then they took them down into the low-ceilinged hangar. The two of them looked around in wild curiosity while Jason gave Jyslin a quick kiss.

"Rann, I'm going to leave these two to your care," Jason told him. "Tom's gonna assign them some rooms, but I'd like you to show them around, take them down to the clothes storage so they can get some wardrobes, show them the kitchens, and explain some of the rules to them. Is that alright?"

"I'd be delighted to," he said with a warm smile. "Everyone here is disgustingly healthy, so there's not much for us doctors to do," he said, which made Ian laugh. _Tom, before you head down here, could you please whip up two handpanels with maps of the mountain for our guests? That way they can't get lost._

"Sure, I can manage that," Tom called over the intercom. "I'll have them with me when I come down. Rick, Jenny, head over to the hangar."

"Well, it was nice meeting you two," Jason told them. "I'd take you on the tour myself, but I have something I have to take care of real quick. We'll be seeing each other every day, so don't think that I'm going to vanish on you or anything like that. Rann, show them where our apartment is. My door's always open, Molly, Ian. If you ever need to talk to me, just come over. As long as I'm not locked in my workshop, I always have time to talk."

Jason waved to Fure as he hurried into the hangar, and the two newcomers gawked at him as he hurried by with only a word of greeting, then piled into the skimmer. The hatch closed, and then the ship picked up off the deck. "Come over here please," Rann said, herding the two newcomers to a safe distance. Jason, however, didn't move. Jyslin blew him a kiss from the window just before she engaged the stealth, and then the skimmer turned and started towards the bubble.

_She'll be fine, Jason. She's a good pilot,_ Rann assured him

_Oh, I'm not worried about that at all, I just don't like being away from her._

_I know that feeling, he sighed._

_I know, Rann. We'll do what we can to keep you and Songa together. I'll be in my lab. I have someone to piss off._

_Oh dear._

                                        * * *

Operation Satan's Marbles, as Temika coined it, was on schedule. In the two days since Jason put that on the priority list down in the shop, they had nearly five hundred of them made. That was almost as many as would be needed for their task. He wanted 750 for the operation. They'd have that done by tomorrow. The flying guns that were slated for the attack on the Faey sensor system were ready. There were 14 of them, parked in a neat row on the edge of the manufacturing gallery, nothing but flying guns with inverse phase emitters so they could evade active sensors... and since they'd be _above _the sensor arrays, the arrays wouldn't detect them soon enough to give the Faey enough warning the arrays were under attack. The lateral and spaceward scanners on those arrays were very weak compared to the planetside arrays, mainly just to scan for possible meteors or space debris that might collide with the arrays, so they'd know when to raise their shields to protect themselves from impacts. The only powerful sensors that swept space between the planet-oriented arrays and space were the orbital station and the ships in orbit around the planet. They didn't have a second layer of sensors to protect those arrays, and Jason was going to exploit that oversight. Once an array was destroyed, they would randomly select another array from its list and go destroy it. That random nature, not following a fast path for quick destruction, was actually going to be the wiser move. Once Trillane realized the arrays were under attack, they would dedicate fighter protection to the closer arrays, since the closest target to the last one was the _most logical_ target to attack, and therefore the most logical target to defend to intercept the attacker. It would take them time to realize that the arrays were being randomly targeted, and then they would spread fighter coverage to all the arrays. Those critical few minutes would allow them to destroy more arrays, because the Faey pilots in those fighters that showed up would be in for one hell of a shock when they tried to shoot those drones down. The drones had _powerful _engines on them, and since they were so small and had no live pilot with mortal constraints, they would be insanely fast, very agile, and a bloody fucking nightmare to hit with plasma cannon fire. The fighters would be hard pressed to shoot down the drones, even as the drones had no problems targeting the stationary arrays and blowing really big holes in them.

Ah, the joys of CivNet. The programming in those drones that would manage their combat protocols was the main AI in a _game_. It was a fighter dogfight simulation game, very popular with the teenage girls, and the AI of that game was sophisticated enough to handle what the drones were doing. Jyslin and Jason had modified that code so the AI knew the operational capabilities of the drone it would control, could understand the mission objectives, and knew what to do when threatened by enemy ships. The AI would cause the drones to evade enemy fire and enemy ships while carrying out their singular task of finding, attacking, and destroying arrays. AI-controlled war machines had a long history in the Faey Imperium of being substandard to Faey pilots, who had experience and skills that a computer couldn't duplicate, like instinct. But what these drones had to do was fairly simple, and in this scenario, a drone was more than suitable for the task. These wouldn't be engaging in active combat with Faey fighter pilots, because they'd _lose_ that kind of an engagement. AI systems could outmaneuver Faey pilots, and they could fire unerringly, but they lacked the ability to predict movements, and that was what dogfighting was all about. All they could do was analyze data and draw conclusions based on _now_, not _later_. In most of the history of live Faey pilots engaging automated drones, the drones did some significant damage in the initial engagement because of the surprise of dealing with enemies that exceeded the mortal limitations of the Faey machines, but inevitably were defeated by the flesh and blood adversaries because the experienced Faey pilots puzzled out the behavior of the enemy, behavior a computer couldn't really change, and shot them down. That was why the drones wouldn't destroy all the arrays. Eventually, the pilots were going to get the hang of the AI in the drones, would be able to predict their movements, and they would shoot them down. The key for Jason was for the drones to deal as much damage as possible before that happened.

Jason knew they couldn't destroy all the arrays, but the attack drones were going to strike the dedicated platforms that orbited over North America first, then fan out from that initial strike and go after camera satellites and the big arrays that were in synchronous orbit over other regions. There were only 10 of the big arrays over North America, larger than the standard sensor satellites, which had more sensor capability. Those were the ones that had the energy sensors on them that were sensitive enough to detect PPGs on the ground, so those were the ones that had to come down.

They wouldn't get them all, but their goal was to destroy enough of the network to force a global realignment of the array system that would weaken _the whole thing_. They could either redeploy, or they could pull arrays from other global sectors and leave those sectors blind... but the Faey wouldn't do that. Despite the track record Jason had shown of isolating his attacks to North America, the paranoid part of the Faey mentality wouldn't allow them to leave a hole in their sensors. They'd rather see the whole field through sunglasses at night than only see one part of it with perfect clarity.

It was all subterfuge, though. The weakening of their intelligence gathering would only help Jason, and in their mind, give him more room to maneuver without fear of being spotted. In actuality, the attack on the arrays was only going to happen because they _expected_ him to target them at some point. They knew he wasn't dumb enough to have the ability to attack targets in space and not try to attack the arrays. If he didn't, they'd wonder _why _he wasn't doing it, and they might find the hack that Kiaari put on their system that gave them access to all their intelligence. He wasn't going to disappoint them.

The orbital station's command center could probably get resources in place to stop the attacks quickly... but they were going to busy with their own little problem about the time the drones began their assault.

And right after those drones made swiss cheese out of the planetary sensor net, new mines would appear in _space_, not on the ground, and start the Stick destruction cycle all over again. In the minds of the Faey, the reason Jason didn't attempt an attack on the sensor net then would make sense once Sticks started going dead in space, attacked by a new kind of mine that targeted the main engine with a cascaded spatial flux wave, a spatial wave that would introduce a fatal overloading feedback cycle into them, forcing them to try to manipulate space that was unstable and actively being warped, something the engines in a Stick were _not_ designed to do. It would be like trying to use gravimetric engines while passing through a stargate; trying to manipulate space that was being so heavily distorted was not something that normal engines could manage. It would cause the engine to overload and literally melt the gravimetric drive, maybe even make it explode, which basically turned the Stick into scrap and spare parts. Gravimetric engines of that size were _not _cheap. They would think that Jason was holding an attack on the sensor net back to coincide with the release of these new mines, and possibly help keep them from being detected by damaging Trillane's ability to detect them.

If they only knew.

The space mines would attack in a different way because of the lack of the ground. A Stick hit with