Starvation Cheap

The reek of blood and scorched steel fills the air. The city is burning under the remorseless fire of far guns, survivors cowering beneath the roots of their glassy towers. The streets are filled with the dead, their bodies made one with the broken road by the tread of the tanks and their scuttling infantry support. Soon the city will fall. It has already become a tomb. Somewhere in that hell is a single data crystal with the technical specifications that might win the war. Somewhere in the burning wreckage of the Cetian enclave is the senator who can persuade her world to send its legions in aid. And somewhere over the river is the lieutenant who saved your life at Harshaw, his platoon pinned down and helpless as enemy tanks hammer his perimeter. You have four teammates, a centaur gunbot, and a comm frequency to artillery HQ. You have four hours before the enemy's main forces surge into the streets. You have decisions to make. Who will live, who will die, and will you be there to see