Combat had filled Avery with adrenaline, and he was about to lose his temper when he realized what the recruits were looking at. It took him a moment more to recognize that the thing splayed against granite was the savaged body of a human being. And it wasn’t until Avery knelt down beside the corpse that he recognized Osmo’s plump, boyish face streaked with his own blood. The recruit was split open across his belly.
	“I told him: Stay away from the lawn.” Stisen swallowed hard. “I didn’t want him to get hurt.”
	Avery clenched his jaw. But he knew there was no way the squad leader could have anticipated that the second dropship would swing in behind them, low above the river, and secretly release a backup team. “Did you see him get hit?” Avery asked.
	Stisen shook his head. “No.”
	“It was one of the little ones,” Burdick whispered. His eyes remained locked on the spill of organs from Osmo’s gut. “It knocked him to the ground. Tore him apart.”
	“I heard his weapon fire,” Stisen said. “But it was too late.”